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COPYRIGHT

Robinson and Collins bills, 1882-83

American Copyright League

Dorsheimer bill, 1884.

the International Literary Association adopted a re- port favoring an agreement, but protesting against the manufacturing clause and time limit. This posi- tion was also taken at several meetings of London publishers, and F. R. Daldy was sent to America to further the English view. Sir Edward Thornton, Brit- ish Minister at Washington, was instructed to pro- ceed to the consideration of the treaty, provided the term for reprint could be extended, and both Presi- dent Garfield and Secretary Blaine were understood to favor the completion of a treaty. With the death of Garfield the matter ended for the time.

A bill dealing with the whole question of copyright, domestic and foreign, was introduced March 27, 1882, by W. E. Robinson of New York, and December 10, 1883, another copyright bill was introduced by P. A. Collins of Massachusetts, but neither emerged from the Committee on Patents, to which they were referred.

The question came to the front again in 1884. A new copyright association, the American Copyright League, had been organized in 1883, chiefly through the efforts of George P. Lathrop, Edward Eggleston, and R. W. Gilder, and there was a general revival of interest in international copyright. On January 9, 1 884, William Dorsheimer, of New York, introduced into the House his bill for international copyright, which provided for the extension of copyright to citizens of countries granting reciprocal privileges, so soon as the President should issue his proclamation accepting such reciprocity, for twenty-five years, but termina- ble earlier on the death of the author. This bill was the occasion of a general discussion. The Copyright League addressed a letter to Mr. Dorsheimer urging the modification of the above limitations, and it was particularly pointed out that the confining of copy- right to an author's lifetime would render literary