Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/189

Rh case of any one who has been preparing a work, let us say upon comparative anatomy, which has probably occupied him for a great many years. He has himself had to make a great number of laborious dissections and to have them drawn, and he or his publisher has had to invest a great deal of money in illustrations. He brings out his book. That book, if it is well done, will preserve its value for a century. At the present moment Cuvier's "Ossemens Fossiles," which I think has been published for about half a century, is in many respects as valuable a book as ever it was, and is as often consulted as ever it was. If when such a book as that is published, or within a short time after it is published, anybody has a right to republish it, the practical effect is that the text will be copied, at probably a thousandth part of the expenditure and time required for its original production, then the illustrations will be copied; and the natural result will be that the reproduction of the book will be sold at a price far less than that at which the original book was sold, the consequence of which is that the author and the publisher of the latter alike have their interests ruined; and the practical result would be that no publisher would take such a book; in fact, he could not do it, he would be liable at any moment to be undersold. That is true of the whole class of botanical works, zoölogical works, anatomical works, and the great mass of illustrated works having relation to physical science.

Q. Carrying on the thought which you have expressed, what, in your opinion, would be the practical result upon all this important class of works which you have described of either abrogating or materially diminishing the term of copyright so far as the public is concerned?

A. I think that it would simply stop their production, and that exactly in proportion to their value and usefulness. The more such works were sought after, and the better they were, and the more largely they were in demand, and suited themselves to the wants of the time, the more certainly would they be pirated, and I do not see how anybody could afford to produce them.

Q. Might it not be that some publisher in a very large way of business might find that he could impose his own terms both on the author and the public?

A. I quite think that that is the inevitable tendency of the abolition or a great diminution of the term of copyright; and I would justify that belief by what happens at the present time in the United States; I myself am paid upon books which are published there; my American publisher remits me a certain percentage upon the selling price of the books there, and that without any copyright which can protect him; but then I am informed that the practice of all the great houses in America (there are some three or four large publishing-houses with very great capital), if anybody publishes one of their books, is to publish a largely cheaper edition at any cost, and they would make any pecuniary sacrifice rather than not cut out a rival. The great houses