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Thurneysen: On the Illicit Reprinting of Books, Basel (1738)
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Freie Universität Berlin 04.06.03.05
Citation:
Thurneysen: On the Illicit Reprinting of Books, Basel (1738), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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things in this respect, that there can be no doubt of. In the following, I would like
to set forth some things which have occurred to me whilst thinking on the subject.
1. It would be most useful of all to have a public censor - it should and
would have to be a scholar - appointed in every community state, e.g. in Germania [i.e.
the lands of the Holy Roman Empire and some German-speaking territories outside it],
in Saxony, in Switzerland, and in those territories which, in their mutual relations
(as was discussed in Section 2), apply treaty law or certain long-established tacit
agreements; and who would have a register in which the titles of already published books,
as well as the names of their legitimate publishers, would be listed and would subsequently
continue to be recorded whenever these publishers proceeded to bring out a new work.
In this way, for instance, if someone were to submit a book to this censor in order to
have it registered, the latter could immediately determine, by consulting his register,
whether someone else had the exclusive right to print or publish that book, so that
in certain circumstances he might well have to refuse the applicant his request. For
the censor to be able to add to his register all books which appear from day to day,
it would be necessary that anyone who would like to publish a new book announced this
in all states where such a Concordat were flourishing, so that the public censor
[in each of these states] would know about it.
2. It would also benefit public interest if an inspection of the bookshops
[in a state] and a visitation of the printing-offices were from time to time carried
out by surprise, so as to have notice of those books which are imported into the state
from foreign parts. For it is often the case that various works which were published
secretly are imported into a state and that they are offered for sale in the shops
there - despite the fact that these are either works which offend against decorum or
which are sold in disregard of the right to which only their legitimate publishers
are entitled. Now, that the magistracy [of a state] cannot simply give official
permission for books of any kind to be imported just like that - exactly as with
any other articles of trade - is felicitously confirmed by Ahasuerus Fritsch.* It
would therefore be sensible to enact a law according to which, all copies [of a book]
which are imported as reprints into any of the territories which mutually observe
treaty right ["ius concordatus"] - as long as that book is already available for a
fair price in the territory in question - would fall to the public treasury.
3. Illicit reprinting could also be prevented if - as has actually
happened once before here in Basel - the respectable and honest representatives of
the printing profession from those territories which have mutually come to terms in
observance of treaty right, as was mentioned above, and who nowadays generally tend
to be booksellers as well, were to exclude from their association those colleagues
of theirs who make available any of their printing-offices to a thievish reprinter.
We do not believe that such an exclusion, or at least the opportunity to bring
pressure to bear on one's colleagues, would clash with that well-known Imperial law
which forbids the inquisition and defamation of disobedient professional colleagues.**
["Inquisitio & diffamatio in immorigeros sodales Collegii" - in German: "das
Aufftreiben der Handwerksgesellen" - "the railing (or reviling) of fellow craftsmen"]
___________________________________________
* In his Tractatus de Bibliopolis, ch.2, § 4.
** See the Imperial civil regulation (“Polizei-Ordnung”) of 1548 “concerning the
sons of craftsmen” (“von Handwerks-Söhnen”), § 1 near the end, and the regulation
of 1577, title no.38, § 3, as well as the general edict (“Lands-Ordnung”) of the
Electorate of Saxony, entitled “Craftsmen” (1548), in which “the railing of
journeymen merely for the sake of chastisement is forbidden”.
No Transcription available.
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Freie Universität Berlin 04.06.03.05
Citation:
Thurneysen: On the Illicit Reprinting of Books, Basel (1738), 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
things in this respect, that there can be no doubt of. In the following, I would like
to set forth some things which have occurred to me whilst thinking on the subject.
1. It would be most useful of all to have a public censor - it should and
would have to be a scholar - appointed in every community state, e.g. in Germania [i.e.
the lands of the Holy Roman Empire and some German-speaking territories outside it],
in Saxony, in Switzerland, and in those territories which, in their mutual relations
(as was discussed in Section 2), apply treaty law or certain long-established tacit
agreements; and who would have a register in which the titles of already published books,
as well as the names of their legitimate publishers, would be listed and would subsequently
continue to be recorded whenever these publishers proceeded to bring out a new work.
In this way, for instance, if someone were to submit a book to this censor in order to
have it registered, the latter could immediately determine, by consulting his register,
whether someone else had the exclusive right to print or publish that book, so that
in certain circumstances he might well have to refuse the applicant his request. For
the censor to be able to add to his register all books which appear from day to day,
it would be necessary that anyone who would like to publish a new book announced this
in all states where such a Concordat were flourishing, so that the public censor
[in each of these states] would know about it.
2. It would also benefit public interest if an inspection of the bookshops
[in a state] and a visitation of the printing-offices were from time to time carried
out by surprise, so as to have notice of those books which are imported into the state
from foreign parts. For it is often the case that various works which were published
secretly are imported into a state and that they are offered for sale in the shops
there - despite the fact that these are either works which offend against decorum or
which are sold in disregard of the right to which only their legitimate publishers
are entitled. Now, that the magistracy [of a state] cannot simply give official
permission for books of any kind to be imported just like that - exactly as with
any other articles of trade - is felicitously confirmed by Ahasuerus Fritsch.* It
would therefore be sensible to enact a law according to which, all copies [of a book]
which are imported as reprints into any of the territories which mutually observe
treaty right ["ius concordatus"] - as long as that book is already available for a
fair price in the territory in question - would fall to the public treasury.
3. Illicit reprinting could also be prevented if - as has actually
happened once before here in Basel - the respectable and honest representatives of
the printing profession from those territories which have mutually come to terms in
observance of treaty right, as was mentioned above, and who nowadays generally tend
to be booksellers as well, were to exclude from their association those colleagues
of theirs who make available any of their printing-offices to a thievish reprinter.
We do not believe that such an exclusion, or at least the opportunity to bring
pressure to bear on one's colleagues, would clash with that well-known Imperial law
which forbids the inquisition and defamation of disobedient professional colleagues.**
["Inquisitio & diffamatio in immorigeros sodales Collegii" - in German: "das
Aufftreiben der Handwerksgesellen" - "the railing (or reviling) of fellow craftsmen"]
___________________________________________
* In his Tractatus de Bibliopolis, ch.2, § 4.
** See the Imperial civil regulation (“Polizei-Ordnung”) of 1548 “concerning the
sons of craftsmen” (“von Handwerks-Söhnen”), § 1 near the end, and the regulation
of 1577, title no.38, § 3, as well as the general edict (“Lands-Ordnung”) of the
Electorate of Saxony, entitled “Craftsmen” (1548), in which “the railing of
journeymen merely for the sake of chastisement is forbidden”.
No Transcription available.