Browse Documents By...
Original Language...
Documents For...
Browse Commentaries By...
Browse Referred Persons By...
Report of Lamartine and parliamentary debates on literary property (1841)
Source: University Library of Cambridge : Le Moniteur Universel 1841 - Parliamentary debates from 13.3 (pub. 14.3), pp.634-36; from 22.3 (pub. 23.3), pp.714-19; from 23.3 (pub. 24.3), pp.726-34; 24.3 (pub. 25.3), pp.745-50; 25.3 (pub. 26.3), pp.759-64; from 26.3 (pub. 27.3), pp.776-83; from 29.3 (pub. 30.3), pp.818-25; from 30.3 (pub. 31.3), pp.836-42; from 31.3 (pub. 1.4), pp.851-57; from 1.4 (pub. 2.4), pp.863-69; from 2.4 (pub. 3.4), pp.875-77.
Citation:
Report of Lamartine and parliamentary debates on literary property (1841), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
636
[Left column:]
through works, security, a modest and too short future. The law can only do this, God alone grants
genius, genius only gives glory, work alone gives fortune.
All of Europe, at this moment, is inspired by the same thought; it belonged to France to precede
Europe. Its great place in the world was drawn for it by the hand of its artists, by the quill of its
writers, greater and more uncontested than by the very sword of its soldiers. Could it leave in neglect
and in despoilment these powers of thought that have conquered so many empires of the human mind
for it? Ingratitude might benefit glory, for it renders it more touching, but it never enriches nations.
What do we not owe to these men whose heritage we have allowed for so long to be squandered? Five
or six immortal names are all a nationality in the past. Poets, philosophers, orators, historians, artists,
remain in memory the dazzling summary of several centuries and of an entire people.
Montaigne plays as a sceptic with ideas, and puts them back into circulation in striking them
with a modern style. Pascal delves into thought not only unto doubt, but unto God. Bossuet pours out
the human word from a height from which it had not yet come down since Sinai. Racine, Moliere,
Corneille and Voltaire find and note all the cris de cœur of man. Montesquieu scrutinises the
institutions of empires, invents the criticism of societies and formulates politics. Rousseau impassions
it, Fenelon sacrifices it, Mirabeau embodies it and places it on the rostrum. Since then rational
governments are discovered, public reason has its legal organ, and liberty marches in step with ideas in
the light of discussion. Mores, civilisation, wealth, influence, government, France owes all to these
men: our children will perhaps owe everything to those that will come after them. The eternal and
inexhaustible patrimony of France is its intelligence. In handing over the generous part to humanity,
in reserving for itself this glorious part that makes its character amongst all peoples, had not the
moment come to constitute as personal property this useful part that makes up the dignity of letters the
independence of the writer, the patrimony of the family and the remuneration of the State?
Allow me to add that the serious and legal constitution of literary, artistic and industrial property
is an act eminently in accordance with these democratic principles that are the necessity and the toil of
our times. This nature of property carries with it all that is missing from democracies. It is brilliance
without privilege; it is respect without constraint; it is grandeur for some without abasement for others.
We have abolished nobility; but we have not abolished glory. The dazzling gift of nature is accessible
to all classes like the other gifts of God. Genius that is born everywhere is the great leveller of the
world; but it is a leveller that elevates the general level of peoples. Literary property is above all the
fortune of democracy; glory is the nobility of equality!
Bill amended by the commission
TITLE I
Of the rights of authors on their writings
Article 1. The exclusive right to publish a work or to authorise its publication by typography,
engraving, lithography or any other means, is secured to the author throughout his lifetime, and to his
representatives or legal successors during fifty years starting from the date of his death.
Article 2. The author can transfer all or part of his exclusive right, not only for all or part of the
period of his lifetime, but also for all or part of the period of fifty years that will follow his death.
If the transfer has not been expressly made, either for the totality, or for part of the rights secured
to the author, it is presumed to be made for one edition only.
The number of copies of this edition will be fixed, in case of dispute, in accordance with the
common practices adopted for works of the same nature.
Article 3. After the death of the author, the exclusive right for all of the time period he will not
have used will be transferred, following the rules of civil law, to the heirs that he leaves at the instance
of the opening of his succession.
The exclusive right will be considered, with regard to the author’s surviving spouse, as a
communal good, unless contrary matrimonial conventions exist.
Article 4. The proprietor by succession or by any other title, of a posthumous work, will enjoy
the exclusive right to publish it or to authorise its publication for a period of fifty years, starting from
the first edition.
This right will be transferable to the heirs or legal successors of the aforementioned proprietor,
in the limit of the period of thirty years here above determined.
Article 5. The editor of an anonymous or pseudonymous work will enjoy the exclusive right for
a period of fifty years, starting from the date of the first publication.
If, before the expiration of this term, the author proves his identity, he will enter into the rights
that are secured to him by the articles 1 and 2.
If this identity is proved after the death of the author, and before fifty years have passed, starting
from the first publication, the heirs or legal successors of the author will enjoy the exclusive right until
the completion of the aforementioned period of fifty years.
Article 6. The exclusive right of the State over published works by its order and at its expense
will last ten years, starting from the date when the last part of the work would have been published.
The right of academies and other knowledgeable bodies on the writings published in their name
and by their care will last thirty years, starting from the publication of the last volume of the work, and
starting from each volume for the anthologies of reports on diverse subjects or writings that are to
make up collections.
The exclusive right of academies over the dictionaries composed by them will last thirty years,
starting from the last entry that they would have published.
Article 7. The rights specified in the articles 1, 2, 3 and 4 are secured for the publication of
public lectures, sermons and other speeches pronounced publicly, which can not be published
separately, nor in the body of a work, without the consent of the authors or their legal successors.
Regarding pleas and speeches pronounced in the two chambers, this consent will only be
necessary for their publication in an author’s anthology.
TITLE II.
Of dramatic works.
Article 8. The dramatic works of living authors can not be performed on any stage, without the
consent of these authors.
Article 9. After the death of the author and for lack of any agreements made, either with him, or
with his heirs or legal successors, the right to perform his work will belong to any theatrical company
duly authorised, provided it pays the heirs or legal successors of the author a remuneration equal to
that which the author received at the time of his death. The right to this remuneration will last fifty
years, starting from the death of the author.
Article 10. Posthumous dramatic works, or without an author’s name, can only be performed
with the authorisation of the persons who would be their proprietors through succession or by any
other title.
Their right will last fifty years, starting from the first performance.
[Middle column:]
Article 11. Regarding the printing of dramatic works, the author’s rights and those of his heirs
or legal successors will be settled in accordance with title I of the present law.
TITLE III.
Of musical works.
Article 12. The authors of musical works, their heirs, legal successors or surviving spouse, will
enjoy, for the publication of their works, by any means of reproduction, the exclusive right established
by title I of the present law.
They will enjoy, for those of their works that will be performed in theatres or in public concerts,
the rights established by title II.
TITLE IV.
The products of the art of drawing.
Article 13. The authors of drawings, paintings, sculptures, medallions, geographic, topographic
and hydrographic maps, plans and other architectural drawings, will alone have the right to reproduce
them or to authorise their reproduction by means of engraving, lithography, printing, casting or by any
other means.
This right is secured as much to the aforementioned authors as to their legal successors, in
accordance with the rules established in title I of the present law.
Article 14. The authors of works of art, mentioned in the preceding article, can transfer the
exclusive right to reproduce them or to authorise their reproduction, while nevertheless retaining the
property of the original work themselves. But, in case of the sale of the aforementioned work, the
exclusive right to reproduce it, or to authorise its reproduction by printing, engraving, casting or by
any other means, is transferred to the acquirer, apart from a contrary stipulation.
TITLE V
General provisions
Article 15. All the rights that the present law grants to the inhabitants of the kingdom
[régnicoles] will be secured to the authors of works of literature, of science and of art published for the
first time abroad when in virtue of treaties the nation to which they belong will have secured
reciprocity to the authors of works published for the first time in France.
Article 16. In the case where the rights that make up the subject of the present law are part of a
succession in escheat, a royal ordinance may, if they are not duly claimed by creditors, attribute them
to spouses or to relatives of the author, for a period that will not exceed fifty years, or make over the
aforementioned rights to the public domain.
Article 17. The authors, theirs heirs or donees, whose exclusive right resulting from anterior
laws will not be exhausted at the instance of the promulgation of the present law, will enjoy the
advantages that it ensures as concerns the publication, the reproduction and the performance of works,
provided that they have not alienated in totality the exclusive right that was secured to them.
In the case of the total alienation of the aforementioned right, the duration will be prolonged in
benefit of their legal successors.
Article 18. The deposit prescribed by the article 14 of the law of 21 October 1814 is fixed at
five copies, as much for printed writings as for engravings, lithographs, maps, musical works with or
without lyrics and other works whose reproduction occurs by processes of typography, of lithography,
of engraving or by any other means.
One of these copies will remain in the Ministry of Interior.
Two copies will be deposited in the royal library and the two other copies will be placed in
favour of public establishments, in accordance with what will be prescribed by a ruling of the public
administration which will determine, amongst other things, the conditions of the deposit, as regards the
state of the copies, and will set the case where it might be necessary, in the interest of commerce, to
reduce to three the number of copies deposited.
The deposit receipt, which will be delivered in accordance with the regulations, or a certified
copy of this receipt, will constitute the author’s or the editor’s title for admittance in court to prosecute
the counterfeiters.
TITLE VI.
Penal provisions
Article 19. Whoever, in prejudice of the rights secured by the present law to authors and to their
representatives, would have published, printed, engraved or reproduced, in entirety or in part, works
and writings of any kind, drawings, paintings, sculptures, musical works or other productions of the
mind or of the arts, already published or still unpublished, will be liable to the penalties applied to the
offence of counterfeiting.
Article 20. All counterfeiters will be punished by a fine of 300 to 2,000 francs, and will
furthermore be condemned to pay to the proprietor damages equal at least to the value of the original
edition from which the counterfeit was made.
If it is a still unpublished work in question, the damages will be determined from the selling
price of books of the same nature.
In the case of a repeat offence, the fine will be 600 to 4,000 francs; the counterfeiter will
furthermore be punished by an imprisonment that will not exceed one year, and his licence may be
withdrawn from him.
Article 21. Whoever will have knowingly introduced onto French territory, or sold copies of
editions counterfeited abroad, of works published for the first time in France, will be punished by
penalties recorded in the preceding article.
Whoever would have knowingly sold a counterfeit work will be punished by a fine of 50 francs
to 1,000 francs, and condemned to pay damages towards the civil party that are determined by the
Courts, as it is recorded in article 18.
In the case of a repeat offence, the fine will be 100 francs to 2,000 francs, and the delinquent will
be furthermore punished by an imprisonment that will not exceed three months.
Article 22. In the cases anticipated by the preceding articles, the counterfeit copies and the
plates, casts and matrixes will be confiscated.
The civil party may request that these objects be destroyed in his presence or in that of his agent,
or that they be attributed to him in deduction of his indemnity.
Article 23. The breaches of the provisions of the articles 8, 9 and 10 of the present law will be
punished by the penalties recorded in the article 428 of the Penal Code.
The articles 425, 426, 427 and 429 of the same Code are repealed; they will be replaced by the
articles 19, 20, 21 and 22 of the present law.
Article 24. The breaches of the present law will be automatically recorded by the Public
Ministry, by the auxiliary officials of the King’s prosecutor, and, furthermore, by the customs officials
for the objects coming from abroad; all of which without prejudice to the legal proceedings instituted
by request of the civil party.
Article 25. All the proceedings of search or seizure, performed as a matter of routine or on the
complaint of the party claiming to be injured, must, within forty-eight hours, be conveyed to the
King’s prosecutor.
[...]
No Transcription available.
Source: University Library of Cambridge : Le Moniteur Universel 1841 - Parliamentary debates from 13.3 (pub. 14.3), pp.634-36; from 22.3 (pub. 23.3), pp.714-19; from 23.3 (pub. 24.3), pp.726-34; 24.3 (pub. 25.3), pp.745-50; 25.3 (pub. 26.3), pp.759-64; from 26.3 (pub. 27.3), pp.776-83; from 29.3 (pub. 30.3), pp.818-25; from 30.3 (pub. 31.3), pp.836-42; from 31.3 (pub. 1.4), pp.851-57; from 1.4 (pub. 2.4), pp.863-69; from 2.4 (pub. 3.4), pp.875-77.
Citation:
Report of Lamartine and parliamentary debates on literary property (1841), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
[Left column:]
through works, security, a modest and too short future. The law can only do this, God alone grants
genius, genius only gives glory, work alone gives fortune.
All of Europe, at this moment, is inspired by the same thought; it belonged to France to precede
Europe. Its great place in the world was drawn for it by the hand of its artists, by the quill of its
writers, greater and more uncontested than by the very sword of its soldiers. Could it leave in neglect
and in despoilment these powers of thought that have conquered so many empires of the human mind
for it? Ingratitude might benefit glory, for it renders it more touching, but it never enriches nations.
What do we not owe to these men whose heritage we have allowed for so long to be squandered? Five
or six immortal names are all a nationality in the past. Poets, philosophers, orators, historians, artists,
remain in memory the dazzling summary of several centuries and of an entire people.
Montaigne plays as a sceptic with ideas, and puts them back into circulation in striking them
with a modern style. Pascal delves into thought not only unto doubt, but unto God. Bossuet pours out
the human word from a height from which it had not yet come down since Sinai. Racine, Moliere,
Corneille and Voltaire find and note all the cris de cœur of man. Montesquieu scrutinises the
institutions of empires, invents the criticism of societies and formulates politics. Rousseau impassions
it, Fenelon sacrifices it, Mirabeau embodies it and places it on the rostrum. Since then rational
governments are discovered, public reason has its legal organ, and liberty marches in step with ideas in
the light of discussion. Mores, civilisation, wealth, influence, government, France owes all to these
men: our children will perhaps owe everything to those that will come after them. The eternal and
inexhaustible patrimony of France is its intelligence. In handing over the generous part to humanity,
in reserving for itself this glorious part that makes its character amongst all peoples, had not the
moment come to constitute as personal property this useful part that makes up the dignity of letters the
independence of the writer, the patrimony of the family and the remuneration of the State?
Allow me to add that the serious and legal constitution of literary, artistic and industrial property
is an act eminently in accordance with these democratic principles that are the necessity and the toil of
our times. This nature of property carries with it all that is missing from democracies. It is brilliance
without privilege; it is respect without constraint; it is grandeur for some without abasement for others.
We have abolished nobility; but we have not abolished glory. The dazzling gift of nature is accessible
to all classes like the other gifts of God. Genius that is born everywhere is the great leveller of the
world; but it is a leveller that elevates the general level of peoples. Literary property is above all the
fortune of democracy; glory is the nobility of equality!
TITLE I
Of the rights of authors on their writings
Article 1. The exclusive right to publish a work or to authorise its publication by typography,
engraving, lithography or any other means, is secured to the author throughout his lifetime, and to his
representatives or legal successors during fifty years starting from the date of his death.
Article 2. The author can transfer all or part of his exclusive right, not only for all or part of the
period of his lifetime, but also for all or part of the period of fifty years that will follow his death.
If the transfer has not been expressly made, either for the totality, or for part of the rights secured
to the author, it is presumed to be made for one edition only.
The number of copies of this edition will be fixed, in case of dispute, in accordance with the
common practices adopted for works of the same nature.
Article 3. After the death of the author, the exclusive right for all of the time period he will not
have used will be transferred, following the rules of civil law, to the heirs that he leaves at the instance
of the opening of his succession.
The exclusive right will be considered, with regard to the author’s surviving spouse, as a
communal good, unless contrary matrimonial conventions exist.
Article 4. The proprietor by succession or by any other title, of a posthumous work, will enjoy
the exclusive right to publish it or to authorise its publication for a period of fifty years, starting from
the first edition.
This right will be transferable to the heirs or legal successors of the aforementioned proprietor,
in the limit of the period of thirty years here above determined.
Article 5. The editor of an anonymous or pseudonymous work will enjoy the exclusive right for
a period of fifty years, starting from the date of the first publication.
If, before the expiration of this term, the author proves his identity, he will enter into the rights
that are secured to him by the articles 1 and 2.
If this identity is proved after the death of the author, and before fifty years have passed, starting
from the first publication, the heirs or legal successors of the author will enjoy the exclusive right until
the completion of the aforementioned period of fifty years.
Article 6. The exclusive right of the State over published works by its order and at its expense
will last ten years, starting from the date when the last part of the work would have been published.
The right of academies and other knowledgeable bodies on the writings published in their name
and by their care will last thirty years, starting from the publication of the last volume of the work, and
starting from each volume for the anthologies of reports on diverse subjects or writings that are to
make up collections.
The exclusive right of academies over the dictionaries composed by them will last thirty years,
starting from the last entry that they would have published.
Article 7. The rights specified in the articles 1, 2, 3 and 4 are secured for the publication of
public lectures, sermons and other speeches pronounced publicly, which can not be published
separately, nor in the body of a work, without the consent of the authors or their legal successors.
Regarding pleas and speeches pronounced in the two chambers, this consent will only be
necessary for their publication in an author’s anthology.
Of dramatic works.
Article 8. The dramatic works of living authors can not be performed on any stage, without the
consent of these authors.
Article 9. After the death of the author and for lack of any agreements made, either with him, or
with his heirs or legal successors, the right to perform his work will belong to any theatrical company
duly authorised, provided it pays the heirs or legal successors of the author a remuneration equal to
that which the author received at the time of his death. The right to this remuneration will last fifty
years, starting from the death of the author.
Article 10. Posthumous dramatic works, or without an author’s name, can only be performed
with the authorisation of the persons who would be their proprietors through succession or by any
other title.
Their right will last fifty years, starting from the first performance.
[Middle column:]
Article 11. Regarding the printing of dramatic works, the author’s rights and those of his heirs
or legal successors will be settled in accordance with title I of the present law.
Of musical works.
Article 12. The authors of musical works, their heirs, legal successors or surviving spouse, will
enjoy, for the publication of their works, by any means of reproduction, the exclusive right established
by title I of the present law.
They will enjoy, for those of their works that will be performed in theatres or in public concerts,
the rights established by title II.
The products of the art of drawing.
Article 13. The authors of drawings, paintings, sculptures, medallions, geographic, topographic
and hydrographic maps, plans and other architectural drawings, will alone have the right to reproduce
them or to authorise their reproduction by means of engraving, lithography, printing, casting or by any
other means.
This right is secured as much to the aforementioned authors as to their legal successors, in
accordance with the rules established in title I of the present law.
Article 14. The authors of works of art, mentioned in the preceding article, can transfer the
exclusive right to reproduce them or to authorise their reproduction, while nevertheless retaining the
property of the original work themselves. But, in case of the sale of the aforementioned work, the
exclusive right to reproduce it, or to authorise its reproduction by printing, engraving, casting or by
any other means, is transferred to the acquirer, apart from a contrary stipulation.
General provisions
Article 15. All the rights that the present law grants to the inhabitants of the kingdom
[régnicoles] will be secured to the authors of works of literature, of science and of art published for the
first time abroad when in virtue of treaties the nation to which they belong will have secured
reciprocity to the authors of works published for the first time in France.
Article 16. In the case where the rights that make up the subject of the present law are part of a
succession in escheat, a royal ordinance may, if they are not duly claimed by creditors, attribute them
to spouses or to relatives of the author, for a period that will not exceed fifty years, or make over the
aforementioned rights to the public domain.
Article 17. The authors, theirs heirs or donees, whose exclusive right resulting from anterior
laws will not be exhausted at the instance of the promulgation of the present law, will enjoy the
advantages that it ensures as concerns the publication, the reproduction and the performance of works,
provided that they have not alienated in totality the exclusive right that was secured to them.
In the case of the total alienation of the aforementioned right, the duration will be prolonged in
benefit of their legal successors.
Article 18. The deposit prescribed by the article 14 of the law of 21 October 1814 is fixed at
five copies, as much for printed writings as for engravings, lithographs, maps, musical works with or
without lyrics and other works whose reproduction occurs by processes of typography, of lithography,
of engraving or by any other means.
One of these copies will remain in the Ministry of Interior.
Two copies will be deposited in the royal library and the two other copies will be placed in
favour of public establishments, in accordance with what will be prescribed by a ruling of the public
administration which will determine, amongst other things, the conditions of the deposit, as regards the
state of the copies, and will set the case where it might be necessary, in the interest of commerce, to
reduce to three the number of copies deposited.
The deposit receipt, which will be delivered in accordance with the regulations, or a certified
copy of this receipt, will constitute the author’s or the editor’s title for admittance in court to prosecute
the counterfeiters.
Penal provisions
Article 19. Whoever, in prejudice of the rights secured by the present law to authors and to their
representatives, would have published, printed, engraved or reproduced, in entirety or in part, works
and writings of any kind, drawings, paintings, sculptures, musical works or other productions of the
mind or of the arts, already published or still unpublished, will be liable to the penalties applied to the
offence of counterfeiting.
Article 20. All counterfeiters will be punished by a fine of 300 to 2,000 francs, and will
furthermore be condemned to pay to the proprietor damages equal at least to the value of the original
edition from which the counterfeit was made.
If it is a still unpublished work in question, the damages will be determined from the selling
price of books of the same nature.
In the case of a repeat offence, the fine will be 600 to 4,000 francs; the counterfeiter will
furthermore be punished by an imprisonment that will not exceed one year, and his licence may be
withdrawn from him.
Article 21. Whoever will have knowingly introduced onto French territory, or sold copies of
editions counterfeited abroad, of works published for the first time in France, will be punished by
penalties recorded in the preceding article.
Whoever would have knowingly sold a counterfeit work will be punished by a fine of 50 francs
to 1,000 francs, and condemned to pay damages towards the civil party that are determined by the
Courts, as it is recorded in article 18.
In the case of a repeat offence, the fine will be 100 francs to 2,000 francs, and the delinquent will
be furthermore punished by an imprisonment that will not exceed three months.
Article 22. In the cases anticipated by the preceding articles, the counterfeit copies and the
plates, casts and matrixes will be confiscated.
The civil party may request that these objects be destroyed in his presence or in that of his agent,
or that they be attributed to him in deduction of his indemnity.
Article 23. The breaches of the provisions of the articles 8, 9 and 10 of the present law will be
punished by the penalties recorded in the article 428 of the Penal Code.
The articles 425, 426, 427 and 429 of the same Code are repealed; they will be replaced by the
articles 19, 20, 21 and 22 of the present law.
Article 24. The breaches of the present law will be automatically recorded by the Public
Ministry, by the auxiliary officials of the King’s prosecutor, and, furthermore, by the customs officials
for the objects coming from abroad; all of which without prejudice to the legal proceedings instituted
by request of the civil party.
Article 25. All the proceedings of search or seizure, performed as a matter of routine or on the
complaint of the party claiming to be injured, must, within forty-eight hours, be conveyed to the
King’s prosecutor.
[...]
No Transcription available.