Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/397

 INTERNATIONAL IN AMERICA 365

issue (one "library" at one time issuing a book daily, others weekly), of the low postal rates for periodicals, of two cents a pound, and thus obtained a further ad- vantage over books by American authors. These quartos gradually gave way to the "pocket edition," in more convenient shape, but not always in better print, at 20 or 25 cents. The sales of corresponding American books had meanwhile definitely fallen.

The history of the movements for international Lack of copyright in America shows that there had been no unified continuous and well-defined policy on the part of the '° ^ government authorities, or of publishers, or of au- thors. While authors almost unanimously, and pub- lishers generally, favored international copyright, the division lines as to method were not between authors and publishers, but between some authors and other authors, and between some publishers and other publishers. There were those, in both classes, who objected to any bill which did not acknowledge to the full the inherent rights of authors, by extending the provisions of domestic copyright to any author of any country, without regard to other circum- stances. There were others, at the other extreme, who opposed international copyright unless it was re- stricted to books manufactured in this country, issued simultaneously with their publication abroad, and of which the importation of other than the American copies was absolutely prohibited. The act of 1891 Compromise was finally passed with the assent of the advocates of 1891 of authors' rights who were willing to waive the ab- stract principle in favor of any moderate measure which should be at least a first step of recognition, and which might justify by its results, even to the opponents of international copyright, further steps of future progress.

While the act of 1891 was unsatisfactory to the