# Primary Sources on Copyright - Record Viewer
Directive for reciprocal copyright protection within the German Confederation, Berlin (1837)

Source: Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte, Frankfurt

Citation:
Directive for reciprocal copyright protection within the German Confederation, Berlin (1837), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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            Chapter 1 Page 3 of 3 total




- 163 -

                  and the penalties threatened by the State laws
                  Moreover, it goes without saying that the
                  Federal Governments in whose territories
                  reprinting was until now not forbidden by law
                  are to decide for themselves, whether and for
                  how long they are willing to allow the
                  distribution of already existing reprints across
                  the extent of their lands.

                        Art. 6. The Federal Convention is to be
                  informed of how the Federal Governments intend
                  to execute the present general principles by
                  special laws or ordinances, and at the same time
                  it must also be explained what formalities have to
                  be fulfilled in the individual States, in order to
                  prove that a work is an original edition and to
                  establish the time of its publication.

      Now, since a large majority of the Federal Governments has
voted in favour of according to authors and publishers an even more
extensive term of protection across the whole territory of the
Confederation than that which is stated as the minimum in Article 2
of the present Federal Resolution, once we have reached the year
1842, unless the need for this should arise earlier, the question as
to a longer duration of the protection to be granted by all the Members
of the Confederation to the rights of authors and publishers, is to
be jointly deliberated again at the Federal Convention, on which
occasion the overall influence which, in the light of any experiences
gathered in the meantime, the present provisions have had on art
and literature, on the interests of the public and on the flourishing
of the art and book trade, is also to be brought into consideration.

[...]

    



- 163 -

                  und der durch die Landesgesetze angedrohten Strafen, unter=
                  sagt seyn. Es versteht sich übrigens von selbst, dass die Bun=
                  des=Regierungen, in deren Staaten bis jetzt der Nachdruck
                  gesetzlich nicht verboten war, selbst zu bestimmen haben, ob
                  und auf wie lange sie im Bereiche ihrer Staaten den Ver=
                  trieb der vorräthigen, bisher erschienenen Nachdrücke gestat=
                  ten wollen.

                        Art. 6. Es wird der Bundesversammlung davon, wie
                  die vorstehenden allgemeinen Grundsätze von den Bundes=
                  regierungen durch spezielle Gesetze oder Verordnungen in
                  Ausführung gebracht werden sollen, Nachricht gegeben, und
                  dabei zugleich angezeigt werden, welche Förmlichkeit in den
                  einzelnen Staaten erforderlich sey, um den Charakter einer
                  Original-Ausgabe und den Zeitpunkt des Erscheinens nach=
                  zuweisen.

      Da übrigens eine große Mehrheit der Bundes=Regierungen sich
dafür erklärt hat, daß den Schriftstellern und Verlegern eine noch aus=
gedehntere Schutzfrist im gesammten Umfange des Bundesgebietes ge=
sichert werden möge, als diejenige ist, welche in dem Artikel 2 des
gegenwärtigen Bundesbeschlusses als Minimum ausgesprochen wird, so
soll mit Eintritt des Jahres 1842, wenn sich das Bedürfniß hierzu
nicht früher zeigen sollte, am Bundestage sowohl die Frage wegen einer
verlängerten Dauer des den Rechten der Schriftsteller und Verleger
von der Gesammtheit der Bundesglieder zu bewilligenden Schutzes
neuerdings gemeinsam berathen, als auch überhaupt der Einfluß in Er=
wägung gezogen werden, welchen, nach den immittelst gesammelten Er=
fahrungen, die gegenwärtigen Bestimmungen auf Kunst und Literatur,
auf die Interessen des Publikums und auf den Flor des Kunst= und
Buchhandels bewährt haben.

[...]

    

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