Recent discussions on the abolition of patents for inventions in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands : $b Evidence, speeches, and papers in its favour
General
Recent discussions on the abolition of patents for inventions in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands : $b Evidence, speeches, and papers in its favour
Patents
4. Every publisher making such an intimation shall be bound to
actually publish, according to his notice, unless the author or
his assignee, within six months of his receiving intimation,
shall lodge at the Stationers’ Hall a bond obliging himself
to publish on his own account, an edition at least as good in
quality, at a price no higher; such bond to bar any action
under the provisions of Article 1.
5. No reprint to differ from the original edition, without
the author’s consent, either in the way of abbreviation,
enlargement, or alteration of the text.
6. If a book is out of print for a whole year, the copyright
privilege to lapse.
7. By special arrangements a longer period of exclusive
privilege shall be allowed for Encyclopædias, works _de luxe_,
&c. [Engravings, photographic illustrations, &c., not to be
subject to the condition now proposed in this paper.]
8. Government to endeavour to negotiate international copyright
treaties on the principle exhibited in the foregoing, with
the United States and other foreign countries, in order to,
first—the increase of the area of remuneration to authors;
and, second, the removal of all unnecessary obstruction to the
exchange of literary productions.
9. On the completion of the above treaty or treaties, all
examination and stopping of books by the Custom-house and
Post-office to cease.
10. Government to endeavour to persuade foreign Governments to
exempt printed matter from duty, or else to charge duty at a
moderate rate by weight, and not _ad valorem_.
The British colonies to enter into the Copyright “Verein” which
would be so constituted, but without any import or export duty,
except in so far as proximity to the United States may render
modification in Canada desirable.
In the event of such international arrangements being
negotiated, the author or assignee of any copyright work to
have an agent in the capital of each of the united countries,
who shall be empowered to receive and give the notices,
intimations, and bonds provided for in Articles 1 and 4.
I am satisfied that the system of royalties could be carried out in
practice without difficulty. Each author would have a special stamp—call
it, if you will, trademark—the use of which, required as a condition of
circulation, he would authorise under such superintendence as he may
think fit. No copy should be legally saleable without the stamp, just as
in France no pamphlet can be sold without the Government stamp.
Strong confirmation of the applicability of the royalty principle to
literature reaches me after the preceding is in type, which I subjoin;
No. I. being extracts from articles published in 1837 and 1839, by Thomas
Watts, Esq., Keeper of the Printed Books of the British Museum; and No.
II., a chapter from “Traité des Droits d’Auteurs,” by M. Renouard, Paris,
1838.
I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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