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COPYRIGHT

Simonds bill, 1890

Simonds re- port, 1890

referred to the Judiciary Committee, which made a favorable report, prepared by G. E. Adams of Illinois February 15, 1890. It was also introduced on the same day by Benjamin Butterworth of Ohio, as a Re- publican, and referred to the Committee on Patents, of which he was chairman. A third bill was also intro- duced on January 6, by W. E. Simonds of Connecti- cut, amending the patent and trade-mark acts with an incidental reference to copyright. Mr. Simonds presented a favorable report from the Committee on Patents February 18, but no action was taken on this report. The main bill was, however, reported from the Judiciary Committee by Mr. Adams, and on motion of William McKinley of Ohio, was made the special order for May 2, when it was debated, with amendments introduced by Mr. Adams and defeated on the third reading by a vote of 99 to 125. The bill was reintroduced, however, by Mr. Simonds with the inclusion of a reciprocity clause. May 16, 1890, and on June 10 the Committee on Patents through Mr. Simonds presented a strong report with a substitute bill, essentially the same. The Simonds report set forth that aside from "practical reasons " for the bill, "it is a sufficient reason that an author has a natural exclusive right to the thing having a value in ex- change which he produced by the labor of his brain and hand. No one denies and everyone admits that all men have certain natural rights which exist inde- pendently of all written statutes." And in respect to international protection, the report said "the United States of America must give in its adhesion to inter- national copyright or stand as the literary Ishmael of the civilized world." The report is printed in full and a detailed account of the campaign for this bill is given in G. H. Putnam's "The question of copy- right." On December 3, 1890, the bill was again