in its character. Definite contracts have been entered into
between authors and the public with respect to matters already
copyrighted, and it would impair the obligations of those
contracts to provide any renewal or extension of such copyrights.
It has already been agreed between such authors and the public at
what time their copyrighted works shall pass into the public
domain.
Recurring to lines 3 and 4 of page 15, I submit that they should
be canceled, so that the copyright shall extend for a definite
number of years after the date of original entry. There seems to
be no sound reason for giving an author a longer copyright, longer
by a year, if he makes his entry on the 2d of January, than
another author will have who enters his copyright on the 30th of
December preceding.