Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900)
Identifier: d_1867
Albert Schäffle: "Authors' rights as an artificial means for safeguarding remuneration and annuities" (1867)
Friedemann Kawohl
Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management, Bournemouth University, UK
Please cite as:
Kawohl, F. (2008) ‘Commentary on Albert Schäffle's economic theory of copyright', in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
1. Full title
2. Abstract
3. References
1. Full title
Albert Schäffle, "Authors' rights as an artificial means for safeguarding remuneration and annuities", chapter in his The Political Economic Theory of Exclusive Markets Including Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks (Tübingen, 1867)
2. Abstract
Albert Schäffle (1831-1903) was a professor of economics at the Universities of Vienna and Tübingen, and for some months in 1871 served as the Austrian Minister of Commerce. As an economist the aim of his work on copyright is to find an appropriate term of protection rather than to justify authors' rights as such or to define the position of these rights within the system of private law.
According to Schäffle, the exclusive rights of authors and publishers could be justified from an economic point of view only, because a work is available everywhere at the same time, thus enabling others to market the same product produced at a lower cost. Exclusive rights, on the other hand, are rejected by Schäffle in those cases where an "identical product of the same quality cannot be produced at lower costs".[1]
Schäffle's economic view on copyright was new and unique, but had nearly no bearing at all on subsequent copyright discourse in Germany.
3. References
Books and articles [in alphabetical order]
Götz von Olenhusen, A., " ‘Ewiges geistiges Eigentum' und ‘Sozialbindung' des Urheberrechts in der Rechtsentwicklung und Diskussion im 19. Jahrhundert in Frankreich und Deutschland", in W. Herschel, H. Hubmann, and M. Rehbinder (eds)., Festschrift für Georg Roeber zum 10. Dezember 1981 (Freiburg: Hochschulverlag, 1982), 83 - 111
Prosi, G., Ökonomische Theorie des Buches (Düsseldorf: Bertelsmann, 1971)
Schäffle, A., "Die ausschliessenden ‘Verhältnisse' mit besonderer Rücksicht auf litterarisch-artistisches Autorrecht, Patent-, Muster- und Markenschutz", Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft 23 (1867): 143-218, 242-290 (journal version of his book)
[1] ["ein ganz gleiches Product von gleicher Qualität um geringere Kosten nicht hergestellet werden kann"] Albert Schäffle, "Die ausschliessenden Verhältnisse mit besonderer Rücksicht auf litterarisch-artistisches Autorrecht, Patent-, Muster- und Markenschutz", Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft 23 (1867): 143-218, 242-90 (150).