# Primary Sources on Copyright - Record Viewer
Remarks on Literary Property (1838)

Source: Biblioteca de Catalunya, DR Hospitalet, C-92

Citation:
Remarks on Literary Property (1838), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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            Chapter 1 Page 3 of 28 total



            
            
            
      The editors of Gazeta de Madrid praised the Diccio-
      nario de jurisprudencia of Mr. Joaquín Escriche, and an example
      of merit, they copied numbers 1352 and 1353 in full of
      the author’s article. It seems to me that their
      choice was not very accurate (unless they take all the cloth from
      the same roll,which I have neither had the time nor humour to examine).
      Besides his declamatory and pedantic style, it has no method whatsoever
      and jumps from one thing to another without any connection or plan.
      The worst thing is that it includes several untruths as I am going to
      demonstrate. Hence, this fixes certain ideas on literary
      property rights, which is something our [Spanish] Parliament
      should not delay in attending to.
                        ___________
      
                  THE PECULIAR NATURE OF LITERARY PROPERTY
      
      Undoubtedly the author of any work owns it,
      unless he concedes its rights to someone else, and this property appears
      with certain privileged distinctions based on the nobility of
      its origin and illustriousness of its object. When the ownership of
      personal property or roots are judged in so many ways in every nation,
      and more so in some others than in ours,
      and when there are jurists who support that neither the author
      should be granted exclusive powers to print his written documents, which is
      a paradox for me; we must examine what has influenced this substantial,
      and apparently unjust, difference.
      
      These are three main reasons: 1. The author works more for profit,
      and the enlightenment of his fellow beings, and neither
      

    


            
            
            
      Los redactores de la Gazeta de Madrid han elogiado el Diccio-
      nario de jurisprudencia de Don Joaquín Escriche, y para muestra
      de su merito han copiado integro en los números 1352 y 1353 el articulo Autor.
      Me parece que no han andado mui atinados en
      la eleccion (como no sea toda la tela del mismo paño, lo que no he
      tenido tiempo ni humor de examinar), pues ademas de su de-
      clamatorio y pedantesco estilo, no se guarda en él método alguno,
      sino que se salta sin conexion ni plan de unas especies á otras, y
      lo peor es que se vierten muchas no verdaderas, como voi á ma-
      nifestarlo. Con esto se fijarán algunas ideas ciertas sobre la propie-
      dad literaria, punto en que no deben tardar á ocuparse nuestras
      Cortes.
                        ___________
      
                  CARÁCTER PECULIAR DE LA PROPIEDAD LITERARIA
      
      No admite duda que el autor de una obra es propietario de ella,
      miéntras no cede su derecho a otro, y esta propiedad se presenta
      con ciertos distintivos de privilegiada en atención á la nobleza de
      su origen y a lo hidalgo de su objeto. Cuando se la ha juzgado pues
      de tan diverso modo que á la propiedad de los bienes muebles ó
      raizes en todas las naciones, y mas que en otra alguna en la nues-
      tra, y cuando hai jurisperitos que sostienen que ni al autor debia
      concederse facultad esclusiva de imprimir sus escritos, lo cual es
      para mi una paradoja; se hace preciso examinar las causas que han
      influido en esta notable, y al parecer injusta, diferencia.
      
      Son tres las principales: 1. El escritor trabaja mas que por el lu-
      cro, por su gloria y por la ilustracion de sus semejantes, y ni una
      

    

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