A MEMORIAL RESPECTFULLY TENDERED TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE AND THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
(Prepared early in 1909 at the suggestion of Mr. Champ Clack but not
offered. A bill adding fourteen years to the copyright period was passed
about this time.)
The Policy of Congress:--Nineteen or twenty years ago James Russell
Lowell, George Haven Putnam, and the under signed appeared before the
Senate Committee on Patents in the interest of Copyright. Up to that
time, as explained by Senator Platt, of Connecticut, the policy of
Congress had been to limit the life of a copyright by a term of years,
with one definite end in view, and only one--to wit, that after an
author had been permitted to enjoy for a reasonable length of time the
income from literary property created by his hand and brain the property
should then be transferred “to the public” as a free gift. That is still
the policy of Congress to-day.
The Purpose in View:--The purpose in view was clear: to so reduce the
price of the book as to bring it within the reach of all purses, and
spread it among the millions who had not been able to buy it while it
was still under the protection of copyright.
The Purpose Defeated:--This purpose has always been defeated. That is to
say, that while the death of a copyright has sometimes reduced the price
of a book by a half for a while, and in some cases by even more, it
has never reduced it vastly, nor accomplished any reduction that was
permanent and secure.
The Reason:--The reason is simple: Congress has never made a reduction
compulsory. Congress was convinced that the removal of the author's
royalty and the book's consequent (or at least probable) dispersal among
several competing publishers would make the book cheap by force of the
competition. It was an error. It has not turned out so. The reason is, a
publisher cannot find profit in an exceedingly cheap edition if he must
divide the market with competitors.
Proposed Remedy:--The natural remedy would seem to be, amended law
requiring the issue of cheap editions.
Copyright Extension:--I think the remedy could be accomplished in the
following way, without injury to author or publisher, and with extreme
advantage to the public: by an amendment to the existing law providing
as follows--to wit: that at any time between the beginning of a book's
forty-first year and the ending of its forty-second the owner of the
copyright may extend its life thirty years by issuing and placing on
sale an edition of the book at one-tenth the price of the cheapest
edition hitherto issued at any time during the ten immediately preceding
years. This extension to lapse and become null and void if at any
time during the thirty years he shall fail during the space of three
consecutive months to furnish the ten per cent. book upon demand of any
person or persons desiring to buy it.
The Result:--The result would be that no American classic enjoying the
thirty-year extension would ever be out of the reach of any American
purse, let its uncompulsory price be what it might. He would get
a two-dollar book for 20 cents, and he could get none but
copyright-expired classics at any such rate.
The Final Result:--At the end of the thirty-year extension the copyright
would again die, and the price would again advance. This by a natural
law, the excessively cheap edition no longer carrying with it an
advantage to any publisher.
Reconstruction of The Present Law Not Necessary:--A clause of the
suggested amendment could read about as follows, and would obviate
the necessity of taking the present law to pieces and building it over
again:
All books and all articles enjoying forty-two years copyright-life
under the present law shall be admitted to the privilege of the
thirty-year extension upon complying with the condition requiring
the producing and placing upon permanent sale of one grade or form
of said book or article at a price of 90 per cent. below the
cheapest rate at which said book or article had been placed upon the
market at any time during the immediately preceding ten years.