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Encyclopaedia Article on 'The Reprinting of Books', Leipzig and Halle (1740)
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen 34 A 398 [Reprint Edition of 1995]
Citation:
Encyclopaedia Article on 'The Reprinting of Books', Leipzig and Halle (1740), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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proved above. Because he has divested himself fully of this
right, it is no longer in his power to exercise it as he
pleases. There is a clear contradiction in giving a second
publisher the right to a new edition from which one is
excluded as a result of the contract one signed with the first
publisher. Thus, the author's permission can be of no avail
to unauthorised reprinters, since it is itself a spurious and
unlawful action. For here too we find confirmed what the
ancient jurist Paulus (in l.29ff. de R.) considers rightful.
What once and for all or in the beginning is defective or
deficient cannot be made good by the passing of time. Now
all we have left to consider is the last, equally shaky,
support on which profit-greedy reprinters try to base their
purported right. They, namely, also invoke the fact that
reprinting is customary practice, and Mr von Ludwig for
one does not hesitate to give them his approval in this (1.c).
Certainly, it cannot be denied that the unauthorised
reprinting of books has nowadays indeed become an almost
general habit amongst the otherwise so honest Germans.
Various examples of it come to light almost weekly in the
anecdotes told by scholars. Moreover, this practice has been
taking place for so long that one might well think that it has
fallen under the statute of limitation. And yet all this cannot
serve as sufficient justification for it. The chief quality
required for such limitation to apply is absent in this case.
From the whole context of what has been said so far about
this matter, it is clear that this practice runs contrary to
justice and decency. Now, just as it cannot be said of the
grossest crimes of our present age, which since time
immemorial have been committed every so often, that for
this very reason they can acquire the character of a well
established custom, so it can neither be said of the wholly
unlawful practice of unauthorised reprinting. Here too the
ancient German saying is valid: a wrong of yesteryear
cannot now become a right. Shame on those book
publishers who think of themselves as Germans and yet
possess none of the ancient German virtues of loyalty and
honesty. More on the subject can be found in a work
published in 1732, the Charlatanry of the book-trade which
encourages its abasement as a result of scamped work,
subscriptions, auctions, reprinting, dawdling etc., examined
impartially by two persons devoted to the trade; and,
similarly, in the Letter of a European book publisher to
another famous publisher in Germany, concerning the
recently published lampoon: 'The charlatanry of book-
trade', published by Antoine de St. Genoveve; as well as the
Unbiased reflections on two infamous pasquinades titled:
1) The Char- ¦
No Transcription available.
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen 34 A 398 [Reprint Edition of 1995]
Citation:
Encyclopaedia Article on 'The Reprinting of Books', Leipzig and Halle (1740), 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
proved above. Because he has divested himself fully of this
right, it is no longer in his power to exercise it as he
pleases. There is a clear contradiction in giving a second
publisher the right to a new edition from which one is
excluded as a result of the contract one signed with the first
publisher. Thus, the author's permission can be of no avail
to unauthorised reprinters, since it is itself a spurious and
unlawful action. For here too we find confirmed what the
ancient jurist Paulus (in l.29ff. de R.) considers rightful.
What once and for all or in the beginning is defective or
deficient cannot be made good by the passing of time. Now
all we have left to consider is the last, equally shaky,
support on which profit-greedy reprinters try to base their
purported right. They, namely, also invoke the fact that
reprinting is customary practice, and Mr von Ludwig for
one does not hesitate to give them his approval in this (1.c).
Certainly, it cannot be denied that the unauthorised
reprinting of books has nowadays indeed become an almost
general habit amongst the otherwise so honest Germans.
Various examples of it come to light almost weekly in the
anecdotes told by scholars. Moreover, this practice has been
taking place for so long that one might well think that it has
fallen under the statute of limitation. And yet all this cannot
serve as sufficient justification for it. The chief quality
required for such limitation to apply is absent in this case.
From the whole context of what has been said so far about
this matter, it is clear that this practice runs contrary to
justice and decency. Now, just as it cannot be said of the
grossest crimes of our present age, which since time
immemorial have been committed every so often, that for
this very reason they can acquire the character of a well
established custom, so it can neither be said of the wholly
unlawful practice of unauthorised reprinting. Here too the
ancient German saying is valid: a wrong of yesteryear
cannot now become a right. Shame on those book
publishers who think of themselves as Germans and yet
possess none of the ancient German virtues of loyalty and
honesty. More on the subject can be found in a work
published in 1732, the Charlatanry of the book-trade which
encourages its abasement as a result of scamped work,
subscriptions, auctions, reprinting, dawdling etc., examined
impartially by two persons devoted to the trade; and,
similarly, in the Letter of a European book publisher to
another famous publisher in Germany, concerning the
recently published lampoon: 'The charlatanry of book-
trade', published by Antoine de St. Genoveve; as well as the
Unbiased reflections on two infamous pasquinades titled:
1) The Char- ¦
No Transcription available.