BLACKWOOD AND COPYRIGHT IN AMERICA.

In connexion with an article in this Number from our able American contributor, it may be interesting to the readers of Maga to be informed of her precise position at present on the other side of the Atlantic, where she is figuring as the champion of the rights of authors, and the leader of an important revolution in literature.

Whether we consider the claims of literary men to the property of their works as founded on inherent right, to be controlled only by the superior good of the community,—or as supported by a mixture of moral and equitable considerations, having reference to the reward and encouragement of learning and talent, it is undeniable that, without some protection of this kind, the fairer and better productions of literature will fail, and their place be occupied by a rank and unwholesome growth, offensive to the senses and noxious to social life. Even the selfish and short-sighted policy of our American brethren, which, in extending the privilege of copyright to their own countrymen, has denied it to foreigners, is found to operate in the most prejudicial manner upon their native literature; as no American publisher is likely to pay its due price for any composition of domestic genius, when he can please his customers and fill his pocket by reprinting, without any remuneration to the author, the most successful productions of the British press. The repression of such a system of piracy in America, would benefit alike the foreigner, whose copyright is thus pilfered, and the American man of letters whose talent is borne down by so disadvantageous a competition.

The publishers of the Magazine had for many years been aware that a cheap American reprint of the work was in regular circulation to a very large extent and they were naturally desirous to put an end to such an injustice.[56] While they were turning their attention to the subject, they received in the early part of the past year, a communication from an American gentleman, suggesting as an effectual means of redress, the insertion in the Magazine, from time to time, of an article from a native or naturalised citizen of the United States, who should establish a copyright in his own person, or that of an assignee, and thus either protect the whole work or compel the publishers of the pirated edition to reprint it in an imperfect form, such as would materially check their success, and, in either way, break up the system.

The tone and talent of this communication seemed to the publishers to recommend their correspondent as himself well qualified to lead the way in this most righteous enterprise, and the result was, the appearance in the October number of the article "Maga in America," which has been highly relished on both sides of the Atlantic. Of this article a proof was despatched to Mr Jay, a solicitor of eminence in New York, who, with the utmost promptitude, registered the copyright in his own name, and, presenting himself to Messrs Scott, the reprinters, inquired if they were about to publish the Magazine, as usual, that month, as he thought it right to inform them that, by so doing, they would be placed in a delicate position. On hearing an explanation, Messrs Scott were considerably taken aback, and, although unwilling to acknowledge that the game was up, they seemed to have a painful consciousness that such was the case. The negotiation terminated in the meantime, in their agreeing, after various letters, and not a little conversation, to pay a sum as copyright, before they issued the October number, and a like amount for each succeeding number, until a further arrangement were made. It would have been very easy for the proprietors to have brought the reprinters under heavy responsibilities, by giving them no hint of their movements, and allowing the October number to be published as usual, when Messrs Scott would have become liable to a severe penalty for every copy sold. This was not done, as no blame is attached personally to Messrs Scott, who have merely acted under a bad system, in which any one publisher might think himself free to seize all advantage which was open to all.

This movement has been most cordially welcomed by the American press, and it will be a source of great pleasure and pride to the Messrs Blackwood, if the step they have taken should in any degree, however humble, assist in establishing, an international copyright, which alone can effectually check a system of reprinting which is ruinous to American authors, and only very moderately profitable to American publishers, who are compelled, by the fear of rival reprints, to sell at a price which leaves a narrow margin of profit, even with no expense but paper and print. They are also in their turn afflicted with a host of smaller weekly pirates, who select the best, or at least the most attractive articles from all the periodicals, and serve them up in a cheap form, not without seasoning sometimes of a very questionable character both in taste and in morals.

The more operose contemporaries of Maga will learn with some surprise—whether pleasant or painful, it would be presumptuous to say—that the buoyancy of her contents seems to be used to float off a few hundred copies of their ponderous productions, which might otherwise be stranded without help or hope. It appears that subscribers are obtained to no less than four quarterly publications, by the inducement that, on such condition, they will receive Blackwood at two-thirds of the price.

Edinburgh, January 1, 1848.

Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.

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