Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1895 — COPYRIGHTS. [ARTICLE]

COPYRIGHTS.

Anybody Can Get One, bnt It May Be Worthleea. “On the morning of July 4th, newspapers In various sections of the country published a fac-slmile of the Declaration of Independence, some of the newspapers going to the trouble of copyrighting the venerable document. ■That the Declaration should be copyrighted one hundred and nineteen years after its promulgation, and in the face of the fact that it has been frequently reproduced In all its original accuracy, excited a great deal of surprise, and Librarian Spofford was called upon for an explanation. He tff&ftoted in the New York Tribune as saying: “It is one thing to copyright someand another thing entirely to have that copyright sustained. Under the law, I am compelled to record a copyright for anything that is brought to me. I can not act in a judicial capacity and determine whether a person who seeks a copyright Is the author or is entitled by priority to secure the privilege he asks. I remember once that Mark Twain came to me and complained that a number of his early contributions to Western papers had not only been published without his knowledge or consent, but had actually been copyrighted by the literary pirates. ‘Sam’ Jones’ sermons used to be taken in shorthand by unprincipled people, and then copyrighted and published, the real author, of course, not receiving a cent in the way of profits. The same scheme was tried successfully with IngersolJ, but now he copyrights his lectures before he delivers them. So you see an amendment to the copyright law is sadly needed. In this case of the Declaration of Independence, it Is absurd to tjiink that the copyright would hold a minute If a test case were made in the courts. The document Is everybody’s property. Still, if you brought me the Constitution of the United States, I would have to record its copyright ff you paid me the legal fee. The Bible has been brought here for copyright any number of times, and every time the request is granted. As for the protection which such a copyright would grant—well, that is a question which some court would have to settle.”