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Simon Marion's plea on privileges (1586)
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. 22071 n°28
Citation:
Simon Marion's plea on privileges (1586), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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and to me, as to all men who might wish
to use it, either to read it or to print
it; it would be iniquitous that his
ambition, not content with this benefit,
should deprive me of it, along with other
men; and make that which was once commonly
owned and diffuse among all those who wished
to make use of it, something proper and
concentrated for his own private usage: rather,
this arrogance would justify depriving him of
this benefit altogether. For the civil law,
which referred the crime of ingratitude to God
alone, and to the hatred of other men, the risk
of falling into general contempt, has finally
added its own censure, in the revocation of
the thing which has been given from him who has
proved unworthy of it. And it is ungrateful to
contravene the law of benefit, and to attempt
to steal from the public sphere something which
the munificence of its creator has put there,
in order to appropriate it for oneself. It is
ungrateful towards the man who, through hunger
and sleepless nights, hastened his own death in
order to live again in immortality through his
book, to attempt to stifle, by privilege, the
honest competition between Printers, who vie
amongst themselves to produce the most attractive
edition. Finally, it is ungrateful to begrudge
the book its celebrity, to attempt to reduce the
proliferation of copies,
No Transcription available.
Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France : Mss. Fr. 22071 n°28
Citation:
Simon Marion's plea on privileges (1586), 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
and to me, as to all men who might wish
to use it, either to read it or to print
it; it would be iniquitous that his
ambition, not content with this benefit,
should deprive me of it, along with other
men; and make that which was once commonly
owned and diffuse among all those who wished
to make use of it, something proper and
concentrated for his own private usage: rather,
this arrogance would justify depriving him of
this benefit altogether. For the civil law,
which referred the crime of ingratitude to God
alone, and to the hatred of other men, the risk
of falling into general contempt, has finally
added its own censure, in the revocation of
the thing which has been given from him who has
proved unworthy of it. And it is ungrateful to
contravene the law of benefit, and to attempt
to steal from the public sphere something which
the munificence of its creator has put there,
in order to appropriate it for oneself. It is
ungrateful towards the man who, through hunger
and sleepless nights, hastened his own death in
order to live again in immortality through his
book, to attempt to stifle, by privilege, the
honest competition between Printers, who vie
amongst themselves to produce the most attractive
edition. Finally, it is ungrateful to begrudge
the book its celebrity, to attempt to reduce the
proliferation of copies,
No Transcription available.