CHAPTER IV

DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF COPYRIGHT

As we have already seen, the early printers concerned themselves almost exclusively with the reprinting of church books and the classics. These last required for successful performance expert editorial work and proof reading. The printers engaged competent and sometimes very distinguished scholars to do this work for them and paid them for their labor. Out of this practice grew the idea that the author might properly share in the profits of the original work done by him. If he were paid for preparing a good text of Virgil, for instance, why could he not be paid for writing a critical article to be prefixed to the volume, and why not if he wrote a whole book about Virgil which the publisher desired to present to the world of scholars? At first there was some objection on the part of the writers themselves. It was held by many that it was undignified and improper for a writer to sell his ideas. Such opinions soon ceased to be common. The race of professional authors living by their pens came into existence.

The same questions which arose with regard to the printer’s right to his work extended to the question of the author’s right. Even before the author’s pecuniary right in his work was clearly recognized the claim was asserted that he ought to have control of it. Luther, for example, strongly asserted this right of control and strenuously objected to piracy on the ground of his desire to safeguard the correctness of texts purporting to be written by him. He does not appear to have cared for the money, as he himself corrected the texts of pirated editions of his works. He feared, however, that harm might come through typographical errors or even the deliberate falsification of his writing. This has always been a real danger, and one of the greatest complaints made by European authors against American printers previous to the days of international copyright was on the ground of the incorrectness of the pirated editions.

One of the first persons to enjoy anything like copyright protection in Germany was Albrecht Dürer. The city government of Nuremberg undertook to protect Dürer and his family in the right to print and publish his works. It is a curious mark of the undeveloped state of public opinion regarding these matters at this time that Dürer seems to have been protected more as an inventor than as an author. The early German copyrights in many cases seem not only to have prevented others from reprinting a specified book but also from printing any book on the same subject. For example, Dürer wrote a book on _Proportion_ which was published in Paris. Before it was completed another artist named Beham undertook to publish a book on _Proportion_. Beham was ordered not to publish his book until after Dürer had completed publication. He insisted that his work was an absolutely independent one, not in any way copied from or related to the work of Dürer, but his plea was disregarded, although, as it afterward turned out, it was quite true that his work was entirely independent.

Throughout Europe during the period we have under consideration we find two ideas gradually clearing themselves from the confused thinking of the time and coming into recognition. The first is the idea that the writer of a book has for a time at least property rights in it, and the other that old books belong to the public. That is the basis of our modern thinking on the subject. We recognize that any writer may copyright his work and is entitled to the control of it during the copyright period, which varies in different countries. When his copyright has expired any publisher who cares to undertake the venture as a business proposition may bring out an edition and sell it at whatever price he chooses. That is the reason why old books are generally cheaper than new books. An edition of Scott or Dickens is purely a manufacturing proposition. An edition of Maurice Hewlett is a very different matter because Mr. Hewlett, or his publisher, holds copyright on his works and must be paid for the privilege of publishing.

Another important development in thought was the growth of the idea of right as distinguished from privilege. A privilege, as the word implies, is an act of grace. It is a grant of permission to do a thing which one has no inherent right to do. In England, as we shall later see, when the idea of copyright came to be seriously considered it was based on the common law, that is to say, it was recognized that the printer and author had some rights in the matter.

As soon as it was seen that the printer and the author had produced something more than a mere piece of merchandise and that the property right of the producer inhered in that added element quite as much as in the piece of merchandise the basis was laid for the common law treatment of the whole matter. The extension of the conception of property to cover thoughts as well as things was the basis of the whole matter.

It was a long time before these ideas emerged on the Continent. It was well to the end of the 18th century before these matters were clearly understood and recognized by law. It was not until 1777 that French law distinctly recognized the difference between old and new books, and the rights of the author. This was only twelve years before the French Revolution. At that time all the old laws were swept away and the extreme regulation of printing in France gave place to no regulation at all, which for a time made things worse than ever. It was not until into the nineteenth century that the question of copyright has been reasonably settled. There is still something to be desired before ideal conditions are reached. Copyright laws of the various nations differ greatly, but on the whole they fairly accomplish the desired results within the national boundaries.

International copyright rests on the Treaty of Bern in 1887. The United States was for many years a great offender in the matter of the recognition of the rights of foreign authors. At the time of the Treaty of Bern the United States recognized the principle of international copyright, but we did not have reasonably satisfactory legislation on the subject until so recently as 1909. In this, as in other matters which we have been discussing and shall discuss in this volume, very little reference has been made to England for the reason that a separate volume will be given to the history of printing in that country.