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 XXII

Copyrights in their business relations

The German publishing law of igoi

BUSINESS RELATIONS OF COPYIttGHT: AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER

Business relations, founded on copyright, are chiefly those between author and publisher. These relations involve questions, not so much of copyright law in itself, as of the law of contract and other statutory and common law provisions. There has been more or less desire on the part of authors to include busi- ness relations within copyright statutes, and in fact the recommendations of the American (Authors) Copyright League to the initial copyright conference of 1905 covered several points of business law, as for instance the right of an author to recover possession of his work from the publisher in case the publisher failed to keep it in print, or the right to prevent as- signment of publication rights to a publisher unsatis- factory to the author. It was, however, determined, both in the conferences and by the Congressional Committees, to omit as far as practicable from the copyright law all questions of business relationship, and to leave these to specific contracts between au- thor and publisher or to the general provisions of law. The law, whether as to copyright or other mat- ters, should afford a basis of certainty for business, but it cannot wisely interfere with freedom of contract between the parties to a business transaction.

American and English statutes accordingly make no special regulation of the calling of publisher. Provi- sion is, however, made in some continental countries for the regulation of publishing and publishers, as in Germany, where a law of June 19, 1901, passed coin-