6. If a book is out of print for a whole year, the copyright privilege to lapse.
7. By special arrangements a longer period of exclusive privilege shall be allowed for Encyclopædias, works de luxe, &c. [Engravings, photographic illustrations, &c., not to be subject to the condition now proposed in this paper.]
8. Government to endeavour to negotiate international copyright treaties on the principle exhibited in the foregoing, with the United States and other foreign countries, in order to, first—the increase of the area of remuneration to authors; and, second, the removal of all unnecessary obstruction to the exchange of literary productions.
9. On the completion of the above treaty or treaties, all examination and stopping of books by the Custom-house and Post-office to cease.
10. Government to endeavour to persuade foreign Governments to exempt printed matter from duty, or else to charge duty at a moderate rate by weight, and not ad valorem.
The British colonies to enter into the Copyright “Verein” which would be so constituted, but without any import or export duty, except in so far as proximity to the United States may render modification in Canada desirable.
In the event of such international arrangements being negotiated, the author or assignee of any copyright work to have an agent in the capital of each of the united countries, who shall be empowered to receive and give the notices, intimations, and bonds provided for in Articles 1 and 4.
I am satisfied that the system of royalties could be carried out in practice without difficulty. Each author would have a special stamp—call it, if you will, trademark—the use of which, required as a condition of circulation, he would authorise under such superintendence as he may think fit. No copy should be legally saleable without the stamp, just as in France no pamphlet can be sold without the Government stamp.
Strong confirmation of the applicability of the royalty principle to literature reaches me after the preceding is in type, which I subjoin; No. I. being extracts from articles published in 1837 and 1839, by Thomas Watts, Esq., Keeper of the Printed Books of the British Museum; and No. II., a chapter from “Traité des Droits d’Auteurs,” by M. Renouard, Paris, 1838.