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J.F.F. Ganz's draft for a general ban on reprinting within the whole Empire, Mainz and Fulda (1790)
Source: Retrospektive Digitalisierung wissenschaftlicher Rezensionsorgane und Literaturzeitschriften des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem deutschen Sprachraum, http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/aufklaerung/index.htm.
Citation:
J.F.F. Ganz's draft for a general ban on reprinting within the whole Empire, Mainz and Fulda (1790), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | Commentaries: [1]
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
408 XIV. A brief outline of the reasons
original, albeit more expensive editions. So the
cash that is brought into circulation by the
reprinter into the country in which he resides
flows out of it again to an incomparably greater
extent. And even if we assumed that the balance
worked out in favour of the reprinter, would
this make his actions any less criminal? An unjust,
immoral action cannot be justified by anything, no
matter whether it is undertaken for the benefit
of the church, the state, or the coffers of the
treasury. By forbidding reprinting, every sovereign
prince would make it easier for the honest book-
sellers in his realm to expand their legitimate
business, and the reprinter would be forced to
take up honest publishing and ensure that he has
a good assortment of books to offer. This would
encourage able minds in every province of Germany
to devote themselves more assiduously to the
sciences and to make much more of their talent
than has been the case so far. Every German province
would, alongside its own constitution, alongside
its own dialect, also have its own favourite
branch of literature. The whole would gain immeasurably
from such an improvement of the individual constituent
parts.
To what extent princes are entitled to take
repressive measures against genuine, or even just
seeming, encroachments, is not for private persons
who are seeking assistance to decide, even though
the right to make one's own judgements may well be
one that is by nature intrinsic to man. Given that
reprinting is so widespread, just princes can easily
be seduced into the delusion that they would be
depriving their realms of a branch of industry if
they did not reward reprinting like their neighbours.
Thus, the upshot is that the northern princes also
allow their booksellers to reprint the good-quality
intellectual products from southern Germany.
[Col. 2]
A similar fate befell German trade in general during
those woeful times in which it was on the verge of
being ruined by custom-duties and taxes from all
corners and directions. Let us assume for one moment
that the universality of reprinting entitled every
prince of the Empire to adopt the same recourse, and
to tolerate, and perhaps even encourage, this literary
piracy in his own lands as a form of protection tariff:
the result will be that booksellers from northern and
southern Germany will rush in upon a good publication
at the same time. He who is able to reprint the quickest,
that is, with the most miserable quality, will certainly
thereby gain a small head start, but the competition
from the reprinter following in his tracks will deprive
him of a good part of his spoils. So the reprinters
would not only ruin the legitimate booksellers - they
would also ruin each other mutually, and literature
and the book trade would reach such a state of decay
that the robbers would soon lose all opportunities of
finding any booty to steal in the first place, so that
only a general prohibition of reprinting would bring
the book trade back to life, which therefore means
that any grounds for taking repressive measures
cannot be valid at all.
§. 4
Moreover, this branch of German commerce, which
is in danger of suffering general ruin, is not
actually that insignificant. One may take it as a
given fact - which can also be demonstrated by a
very straightforward calculation - that every year
the book trade causes 2 million gulden to circulate
across all of the German provinces which form part
of the union of Imperial estates. And in this
capital sum the booksellers of southern Germany,
partly as wholesalers, partly as retail booksellers,
and partly as both of these,
No Transcription available.
Source: Retrospektive Digitalisierung wissenschaftlicher Rezensionsorgane und Literaturzeitschriften des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem deutschen Sprachraum, http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/aufklaerung/index.htm.
Citation:
J.F.F. Ganz's draft for a general ban on reprinting within the whole Empire, Mainz and Fulda (1790), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | Commentaries: [1]
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
408 XIV. A brief outline of the reasons
original, albeit more expensive editions. So the
cash that is brought into circulation by the
reprinter into the country in which he resides
flows out of it again to an incomparably greater
extent. And even if we assumed that the balance
worked out in favour of the reprinter, would
this make his actions any less criminal? An unjust,
immoral action cannot be justified by anything, no
matter whether it is undertaken for the benefit
of the church, the state, or the coffers of the
treasury. By forbidding reprinting, every sovereign
prince would make it easier for the honest book-
sellers in his realm to expand their legitimate
business, and the reprinter would be forced to
take up honest publishing and ensure that he has
a good assortment of books to offer. This would
encourage able minds in every province of Germany
to devote themselves more assiduously to the
sciences and to make much more of their talent
than has been the case so far. Every German province
would, alongside its own constitution, alongside
its own dialect, also have its own favourite
branch of literature. The whole would gain immeasurably
from such an improvement of the individual constituent
parts.
To what extent princes are entitled to take
repressive measures against genuine, or even just
seeming, encroachments, is not for private persons
who are seeking assistance to decide, even though
the right to make one's own judgements may well be
one that is by nature intrinsic to man. Given that
reprinting is so widespread, just princes can easily
be seduced into the delusion that they would be
depriving their realms of a branch of industry if
they did not reward reprinting like their neighbours.
Thus, the upshot is that the northern princes also
allow their booksellers to reprint the good-quality
intellectual products from southern Germany.
[Col. 2]
A similar fate befell German trade in general during
those woeful times in which it was on the verge of
being ruined by custom-duties and taxes from all
corners and directions. Let us assume for one moment
that the universality of reprinting entitled every
prince of the Empire to adopt the same recourse, and
to tolerate, and perhaps even encourage, this literary
piracy in his own lands as a form of protection tariff:
the result will be that booksellers from northern and
southern Germany will rush in upon a good publication
at the same time. He who is able to reprint the quickest,
that is, with the most miserable quality, will certainly
thereby gain a small head start, but the competition
from the reprinter following in his tracks will deprive
him of a good part of his spoils. So the reprinters
would not only ruin the legitimate booksellers - they
would also ruin each other mutually, and literature
and the book trade would reach such a state of decay
that the robbers would soon lose all opportunities of
finding any booty to steal in the first place, so that
only a general prohibition of reprinting would bring
the book trade back to life, which therefore means
that any grounds for taking repressive measures
cannot be valid at all.
§. 4
Moreover, this branch of German commerce, which
is in danger of suffering general ruin, is not
actually that insignificant. One may take it as a
given fact - which can also be demonstrated by a
very straightforward calculation - that every year
the book trade causes 2 million gulden to circulate
across all of the German provinces which form part
of the union of Imperial estates. And in this
capital sum the booksellers of southern Germany,
partly as wholesalers, partly as retail booksellers,
and partly as both of these,
No Transcription available.