LITERARY PROPERTY. 329 LITERARY PROPERTY. and in order to encourage the States in the framing of copyright legishxtioii, a resolution, pro- posed by Madison, was adopted in Congress in Ma.y, 1783, i-eeoniniending to tlie States the adop- tion of laws securing copyright for a term of not less than fourteen years, with right of renewal for fourteen years more. Certain of the State acts granted longer terms. The act of 1790, how- ever, provided for the double term suggested by Madison. The .act of 1831 extended the fourteen years to twenty-eight, with the privilege to the author, his widow, or the children, of renewal for fourteen years more. The statute law relat- ing to copyright is to be found in U. >S'. Rev. ^7wf.. Tit. bo, .Chap. 3 (1874), with later amend- ments, of which those of March, 1891, intro- duced international provisions. ( See CoPY- BIGHT.) Under the interpretation of the United States courts, copyright in published works exists only by virtue of the statute, while in the works that have not been published, such as compositions prepared for dramatic representa- tion, the copyright obtains through the common law. The United States decision which still serves as a precedent on the point of statutory limitation of copyright is that of the United States Supreme Court in 1834 in the ease of Wheaton vs. Peters. This decision involved the purport of the United States law of 1790, and the determination of the same question that had been decided by the House of Lords in 1774; viz. whether copyright in a published work existed by the common law, and if so whether it had been taken away by statute. The Court held that the law had been settled in England, the act of 8 Anne, Chap. 21, having taken away any right previously existing at common law; and that the copyright statute of 1790 did not affirm a right already in existence, but created one; and finallv, that there was no common law of the United States in force. Justices Thompson and Baldwin, in opposing the conclusions of the four justices concurring in this decision, took the groimd that the common law of England did prevail in the United States, that copyriglit at common law had been fully recognized, and that even if it were admitted that such copyright had been abrogated in England by the statute of Anne, such statute had, of course, no effect either in the colonies or in the United States. In 1880, in the case of Putnam vs. Pol- lard, it was claimed by the plaintiff that the decision in Wheaton vs. Peters could, in any case, only make a precedent for Pennsylvania ; that the English common law obtained in the State of New York, and could not have been affected by the statute of Anne; but the New York Supreme Court decided that Wheaton vs. Peters constituted a valid precedent. IxTERNATioNAL COPYRIGHT. The first Country to take action in regard to international copy- right was Prussia, which in 1836 passed an act conceding the protection of the Prussian statute to the writers of every country which should grant reciprocity. In 1837 a copyright conven- tion was concluded between the different mem- bers of the (ierman Confederation. This was confirmed in 1870 between the States which were then brought together in the. newly constituted German Empire. In 1838 an act was passed in England luider which the Crown mi.ght. by order in council, grant the privilege of copyright to authors of books first published in any foreign country, to be named in such order, provided al- ways that "due protection had been secured by the foreign Powers so named for the benefit of parties interested in works first published in British dominions." Under this act Great Britain entered into copyright conventions with Saxony, 184(); Hanover, 1847; France, 18.51; Prussia, 18r)5; Belgium, 18.55; Spain, 1857; Sardinia, 1862; and Italy, 1867. Interstate con- ventions were also arrived at during the same period between most of the literature-producing States of Europe, the noteworthy exceptions be- ing Belgium (which prolited largely through the unauthorized reprinting of books originating in France), Holland, and Hungary. In I8S7, under the Bern Convention, the States of Europe and certain States outside of Europe united in a copyright system which protected, throughout the territory of the States that were party to the convention, the works produced in each of these States. The States taking part in this interna- tional union comprised at the outset Great Brit- ain (including the Briti.sh colonies), Germany, France, Belgium, Spain. Italy, Switzerland, Haiti, and Tunis. Since 1887 the following States have come into the union: Luxembourg, ilonaco, iMontenegro, Norwa}', .lapan, and Denmark. The most noteworthy exceptions, among the litera- ture-producing countries, to membership in the convention are Holland. Russia, Austria-Hun- gary, and the United States. In 1896 a diplo- matic conference met in Paris to discuss a re- vision of the Bern Convention, and drew up a modification known as the .ct of the 4th of May, 1890. The association maintains a permanent bureau at Bern, and under its initiative confer- ences have been held at brief intervals through the action of which the provisions of the Union have been perfected. In 1901 the International Publishers' Association established at Bern a permanent bureau whose work is carried on in cooperation with that of the Bern Convention. In the United States efforts to secure inter- national copyright relations extended over a period of more than fifty years. In 1837 Henry Clay presented to Congress a petition of British authors asking for American copyri.i.'ht. In 1843 George V. Putnam i)rescntcd to Congress a memorial drafted by himself, and signed by ninetv-seven publishers and printers, in which it was stated that "the absence of an internati<mal copyright was alike injurious to the hiisiness of pulilishing, and to the best interests of the peo- ple at large." In 1841 W'as organized the first International Cojiyright .ssociation, of which George 1'. Putnam was the secretary. Between that date and 1891 fourteen copyright measures were introduced into Congress. In 1887 the American Copyright U>ague, composed in the main of the authors of the country, appointed an executive committee to take action to further the measures then pending in behalf of interna- tional copyright. Of this committee Jlr. I!. U. .Johnson was, during the greater part of its activitv, the secretary. In tlie same month was organized the .merican Publishers' Copyright League, with W. H. .Appleton as president, and G. H. I'utnam as secretary. In 1891 was finally secured the enactment of the bill, drafted under the direction of the Publishers' League, which made such modifications in the existing statute as to concede copyright in the United States to the authors of foreign States in which American authors were placed in a. position to secure
