# Primary Sources on Copyright - Record Viewer
Fichte: Proof of the Unlawfulness of Reprinting, Berlin (1793)

Source: Berlinische Monatschrift (1793), 443-482

Citation:
Fichte: Proof of the Unlawfulness of Reprinting, Berlin (1793), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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            Chapter 1 Page 40 of 41 total

482

and that for next to nothing, or only
a barely calculable sum, I must endure
my opponent's slanderous accusations
as well as the rogues and robbers he
sends out against me. Through this
vilification I am woefully deprived
of my good name, upon which people set
such value, so that honest people begin
to think twice about whether to buy
from me or not. I am thus a martyr for
the greatest good of the world. And if
an action is the worthier the more one
must sacrifice to perform it, then mine
is one of the worthiest. I should not
like to be robbed of the honor of martyrdom,
were it not for the fact that
the dishonour that martyrdom brings on
my trade obstructs my practice of it
and inflicts injury on the common good.
I therefore request Your Majesty to order
that henceforth everyone acknowledge
my trade to be an honest one, under pain
of punishment; and that the plaintiff
be obliged to not only apologize to me,
make reparation of honor, and give
public thanks for the service I have
rendered him, but also in the future
allow me to steal from him as much
as I like.


    

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