Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2183 page)

 
ADDRESSED TO AN AMERICAN FRIEND.

 
YOU were taking leave of me the other day, Colonel, when I re- ceived from the United States a copy of a pirated edition of one
 
of my books. I threw it into the waste-paper basket, with an ex- pression of opinion which a little startled you. As we shook hands
 
at parting, you said, “When you are cool, my friend, I should like to
 
be made acquainted with your sentiments on the copyright question.”
 
I am cool now — - and here are my sentiments.

I shall ask permission to introduce my remarks in a manner which
 
will be personally interesting to you, by relating a little anecdote con- nected with the early history of your own family.
 
                                                        I. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, one of your ancestors,
 
voyaging with the illustrious Hendrick Hudson, got leave of absence
 
from the ship, and took a walk on Manhattan Island, in the days
 
before the Dutch settlement. He was possessed, as I have heard you
 
say, of great ability in the mechanical arts. Among the articles of
 
personal property which he had about him was a handsome watch,
 
made by himself, and containing special improvements of his own
 
invention.

The good man sat down to rest and look about him, at a pleasant
 
and pastoral spot, now occupied, it may be interesting to you to
 
know, by a publishing-house in the city of New York. Having
 
thoroughly enjoyed the cool breeze and the bright view, he took out
 
his watch to see how the time was passing. At the same moment
 
an Iroquois chief — - whose name has, I regret to say, escaped my
 
memory — - passed that way, accompanied by a suitable train of fol- lowers. He observed the handsome watch; snatched it out of the
 
stranger’s hand, and then and there put it into the Indian substitute
 
for a pocket, — - the name of which, after repeated efforts, I find myself
 
unable to spell.

Your ancestor, a man of exemplary presence of mind, counted the
 
number of the chief’s followers, perceived that resistance on his
 
single part would be a wilful casting away of his own valuable life,
 
and wisely decided on trying the effect of calm remonstrance.

“Why do you take my watch away from me, sir ?” he inquired.

The Indian answered with dignity, “Because I want it?”

“May I ask why you want it?”

The Indian checked off his reasons on his fingers. “ First, because
 
I am not able to make such a watch as yours. Secondly, because
 
your watch is an article likely to be popular among the Indians.
 
Thirdly, because the popularity of the watch will enable me to sell
 
it with considerable advantage to myself. Is my white brother
 
satisfied?”

Your ancestor answered that he was not satisfied. “The thing
 
you have taken from me,” he said, “ is the product of my own inven- tion and my own handiwork. It is
my
watch.”

The Indian touched his substitute for a pocket. “ Pardon me,” he
 
replied, “ it is mine now.”

Your ancestor began to lose his temper ; he reiterated his assertion : “I say my watch is my lawful property?”

The noble savage reasoned with him. “Possibly your watch is
 
protected in Holland,” he said. “It is not protected in America.
 
There is no watch-right treaty, sir, between my country and yours.”

“And, on that account, you are not ashamed to steal my watch ?”

“On that account, I am not ashamed to steal your watch. Good
 
morning.”

The prototypes of modern persons have existed in past ages. The
 
Indian chief was the first American publisher. Your ancestor was
 
the parent of the whole European family of modern authors.

 
II. You and I, Colonel, are resolved to look this copyright question
 
fairly in the face. Suppose we look at it from the historical point of
 
view, to begin with.

The Dutch emigrants settled on Manhattan Island about two hundred
 
and fifty years ago. They might have “pirated” the island, on the
 
ground that it was not protected by treaty. But they were too honest
 
to commit an act of theft : they asked the Indians to mention their price.
 
The Indians mentioned twenty-four dollars. The noble Dutchmen paid, — - and a very good price, too, for a bit of uncultivated ground, with
 
permission to remove your “wigwam” to the neighbouring continent.

In due course of time arose the Dutch city of New Amsterdam.
 
Civilisation made its appearance on Manhattan Island ; and with Civilisation came Law. Acting as the agent of Justice, Law pro- tected property. In those days of moral improvement, if an Indian
 
stole a Dutchman’s watch he committed an offence, and he was pun- ished accordingly, — - for, observe, a watch was now property.

Later dates brought their changes with them. The English forced
 
themselves into the Dutchmen’s places. New Amsterdam became
 
New York. As time went on, a foolish English king and an ob- stinate English government were deservedly beaten in a trial of
 
strength with the descendants of the first English settlers. The
 
Republic of the United States started on its great career. With
 
peace came the arts of peace. The American author rose benignly
 
on the national horizon. And what did the American Government do?

The American Government, having all other property duly pro- tected, bethought itself of the claims of literature ; and, looking
 
towards old Europe, saw that the work of a man’s brains, produced in
 
the form of a book, had been at last recognised as that man’s property
 
by the law. Congress followed this civilized example, and recognised
 
and protected the published work of an American citizen as being
 
that citizen’s property.

Having thus provided for the literary interests of its own people
 
within its own geographical limits, Congress definitively turned its
 
back on all further copyright proceedings in the Old World. After a
 
certain lapse of time, the three greatest nations in the continent of
 
Europe — - France, Germany, and Italy — - agreed with England that
 
an act of justice to literature still remained to be done. Treaties of
 
international copyright were accordingly exchanged between these
 
States ; and an author’s right of property in his work was now recog- nized in other countries than his own.

With this honourable example set before it by other Governments,
 
what has the Government of the United States done? Nothing!
 
To this day it refuses to the literary property of other people the
 
protection which it gives to the literary property of its own people.
 
To this day, the President and Congress of America remain content
 
to contemplate the habitual perpetration, by American citizens, of the
 
act of theft.

III.

 
Having now done with our historical survey, in plainer words,
 
having now got at our facts, we may conveniently confront the
 
grand question: Why does the Government of the United States
 
refuse to foreign writers the copyright in their works which it con- cedes to the works of its own citizens? Are there any insuperable
 
difficulties in the way ?

Colonel, when honest men perceive that an act of justice ought to
 
be done and determine really to do it, there are never any insuperable
 
difficulties in the way. On the plain merits of the case — - mark that, if
 
you please ; you will soon see why — - there are no more difficulties in
 
the way of international copyright between England and America than
 
between England and France, England and Germany, England and
 
Italy. The cases run on parellel lines, the necessity of foreign trans- lation, in the European case, being an accidental circumstance, which
 
adds to the expense of publishing the book, and nothing more. My
 
work is republished in America in English, and republished in France
 
in French. Whatever difference there may be in the language of the
 
republication, the fact of the republication remains the same fact in
 
both instances.

I am very careful to put this plainly. There must be some clear
 
ground to stand on, before I can attempt to clear away the extraordi- nary accumulation of delusions under which the unfortunate subject
 
of copyright has been smothered in recent years. If you see any
 
difficulty in accepting my statement of the case thus far, let us revert
 
to first principles, and ask ourselves, What is the object to be attained
 
by the thing called International Copyright?

In answering this question I will put it personally, for the greater
 
facility of illustration. The object of International Copyright is to
 
give me by law (on conditions with which it is reasonably possible
 
for me to comply) the same right of control over my property in my
 
book in a foreign country which the law gives me in my own country.
 
In Europe, this is exactly what we have done. When I publish my
 
book in London, I enter it at Stationers’ Hall, and register it as my
 
property, — - and my book is mine in Great Britain. When I publish
 
my book in Paris, I register it by the performance of similar formal- ities, — - and again my book is mine in France. In both cases, my
 
publisher (English or French) is chosen at my own free will. His
 
position towards me is the position of a person who takes the business of publishing and registering off my hands, in consideration of a
 
bargain previously made between us, the essence of which bargain
 
is that the book is my property, and that my written permission is
 
necessary before he can obtain his right to publish the book, and his
 
exclusive claim (for a greater or less period of time) to the privilege
 
of selling it for me. Why cannot I do the same thing in the United
 
States ; and why cannot my American brother-writer do the same
 
thing in Great Britain?

 
IV.
 
Here the Colonel lays down my letter for awhile, and looks be- wildered.