In addition to cards under the proprietors' names, cards are now made: for books, under the names of their authors; for anonymous books, periodicals and dramatic compositions, under the first words of the titles (not a, an, or the), and for maps, under the leading subject words of the titles, i.e., the names of the localities mapped. It is doubtful if an absolutely complete index of all copyright entries by the title of the book and other article—in addition to the cards at present made—could be justified by even a possibly legitimate use of such an index. When it is remembered that the copyright entries last year numbered 97,967, the magnitude of the task of making several cards for each entry is easily conceived, and it is a question whether it could be rightfully imposed upon the Copyright Office under the present provisions of the law and so long as the registration of a title does not secure the use of that title to some one person to the exclusion of all others.
8. Amendment of the copyright law.
The possible amendment of the copyright laws is a subject which my time does not permit me to consider in detail, even were that deemed desirable. The law now in force consists of the Act of July 8, 1870, as edited to become title 60, chapter 3 of the Revised Statutes, and ten amendatory acts passed subsequently. Naturally there is lacking the consistency and homogeneousness of a single well-considered copyright statute. It is possible that Congress will presently be willing to take under consideration, if not the re-codification of the copyright laws, then, at least, some amendment of them. An increase in the period of protection has frequently been urged, with some advocacy of perpetual copyright. As the Federal constitution, however, distinctly provides that the protection granted the writings of an author is to be for a limited time, an amendment of the constitution would be necessary before Congress could enact perpetual copyright, and such alteration of the fundamental law of the land is not probable.
Much might be said for an increase in the period of protection. It is for a shorter term of years than that provided by most modern copyright legislation, and the trend of such lawmaking has been in the direction of an increase in the length of time during which the author or his heirs could control the reproduction of his work. It should be borne in mind that for books of little value the length of the term of protection is of no great consequence. "Dead" books are not affected by the length of the term of copyright. In the case also of popular new books, the great sales and consequent disproportionate remuneration comes within a short period of time after publication, and are not likely to continue during a long term of copyright. On the other hand, many books of great and permanent value not unfrequently make their way slowly into popular favor, and are not fully appreciated until many years after publication. For such books—the results, perhaps, of long years of study and labor—an equitable return cannot be secured except by a long term of protection.
Perhaps the most urgently desirable forward step in respect to copyright is the adhesion of the United States to the Berne convention, thus securing the inclusion in the International Copyright Union of our country, the leading one of the three great states not yet members of this admirable association of nations. Were the United States a member of the Berne Union a compliance with the statutory provisions of our own laws alone would secure copyright protection not only within the limits of the United States, but practically throughout the whole book-reading world—Great Britain, all Europe (except temporarily Russia, Austria, and Scandinavia), Canada and Australia, India, Japan and South Africa—thus increasing the possible reading public of American authors many fold. It would seem that considerations of justice to our large and constantly increasing national contingent of literary and artistic producers requires this advance of such great practical importance. It is the easier of accomplishment because it involves the adoption of no new principle, but only the extension of the principle embodied in the Act of March 3, 1891, namely, reciprocal international exchange of copyright privileges, and in return for the advantages which would accrue to our own citizens, only obligates the extension of copyright in the United States to the subjects of such countries as are members of the Union. Of the members of the International Copyright Union, all the great nations already enjoy copyright in the United States, and it would only remain to extend this privilege to the citizen authors of the six minor states that are members of the Union, namely, Hayti, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway and Tunis.
[THE RELATIONSHIP OF PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS.]
By W. Millard Palmer, Grand Rapids, Mich.
In accepting the president's suggestion to give "expression of the business side of the subject rather than the theoretical or sentimental," I wish at the outset to recall certain functions performed by publishers, booksellers and librarians, and to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. J. W. Nichols, secretary of the American Booksellers' Association, for material along this line.
Casual observers have come to regard publishers as bookmakers or manufacturers, who merely put the product of authors into merchantable form, and distribute it to dealers, for sale to the reading public. If this were the only function of the publisher, his task would be an easy one; indeed we might soon expect to see all publishers supplanted by one great co-operative factory, to which authors might take their manuscripts, and have them transformed into books and distributed through the ordinary channels of commerce, like any other commodities. Some superficial observers have recently made bold to conjecture that this will be the final outcome of the present troubled state of the general trade of publishing and selling books. But, alas! the actual making of the book—giving to it an appropriate, artistic and really attractive form—is perhaps the least of the publishers' trials, though this, in itself, is a difficult task, requiring an artistic taste, well trained and skilful judgment, and much technical knowledge.
To one who has had an insight into the publishing business, the enormous mass of manuscript that is annually submitted to each of the great publishers is simply appalling. They are compelled to employ a corps of "readers" to cull out that which is worthy of consideration by an intelligent and skilled publisher. Much that come to hand has been hastily prepared by persons who lacked the time, experience or special training necessary to enable an author to prepare an acceptable manuscript, while the great majority of young authors have really no message to tell that is worth recording. Here comes the most difficult and trying task of the successful publisher—the selection of proper material for publication. It often happens that a rejected manuscript contains some good work—a promise of something better to come. Then the publisher points out the best features and encourages the incipient author to try again.