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A publisher's 'Friendly Reminder' about reprints, Schmalkalden (1591)
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, online edition 'Rechtsquellen der frühen Neuzeit' http://rechtsquellen-digital.uni-hd.de
Citation:
A publisher's 'Friendly Reminder' about reprints, Schmalkalden (1591), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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Record-ID: d_1591
Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_d_1591
Full title:
'Friendly Reminder to all God-loving Book printers, Booksellers, and publishers' included by the publisher Michel Schmück as the foreword to Part I of Cyriacus Spangenberg's 'Mirror for the Nobility', a treatise on the aristocracy
Full title original language:
Adels Spiegel.|| Historischer || Ausf[ue]rlicher Bericht: Was Adel || sey vnd heisse/ Woher er kome/ Wie mancherley er sey/ Vnd || Was denselben ziere vnd erhalte ... || auffs fleissigste beschrieben/ Durch || M.Cyriacum Spangenberg.||
Abstract:
This document is associated with the core document: d_1531. This printer's preface was cited in a dispute among German scholars on what was called a 'publisher's property' as a precursor of the later concept of 'author's property'. The publisher refers to Christ's Seventh Commandment and brands reprinting as theft. Schmück's request that no one reprint his book is based on the claim that he had produced the book at 'quite significant expense'. Gieseke comments on this: 'It would have seemed obvious if publishers had regarded the expenses incurred in acquiring a new work (i.e. the author's fee, in particular), not merely as a debit entry in the publishing account but, rather, as what they had to pay in return for obtaining a special exploitation right (in the modern sense) to the work embodied in the manuscript (that is, a right going beyond mere physical ownership of the manuscript).' From the observation that Schmück did not put forward such an argument, Gieseke concludes that 'the notion of an exploitation right to the work acquired [by the publisher] from the author did not exist as yet'.
Commentary: No commentaries for this record.
Bibliography:
N/A
Related documents in this database:
1531: Basel Printers' Statute
Author: Cyriacus Spangenberg/ Michel Schmück
Publisher: Michel Schmück
Year: 1591
Location: Schmalkalden
Language: German
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, online edition 'Rechtsquellen der frühen Neuzeit' http://rechtsquellen-digital.uni-hd.de
Persons referred to:
Schmück, Michel
Spangenberg, Cyriacus
Places referred to:
N/A
Cases referred to:
N/A
Institutions referred to:
N/A
Legislation:
N/A
Keywords:
Bible, the
book trade
divine law
manuscript
piracy
property theory, publishers' property
reprints
royalty/royalties
Responsible editor: Friedemann Kawohl
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, online edition 'Rechtsquellen der frühen Neuzeit' http://rechtsquellen-digital.uni-hd.de
Citation:
A publisher's 'Friendly Reminder' about reprints, Schmalkalden (1591), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Record-ID: d_1591
Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_d_1591
Full title:
'Friendly Reminder to all God-loving Book printers, Booksellers, and publishers' included by the publisher Michel Schmück as the foreword to Part I of Cyriacus Spangenberg's 'Mirror for the Nobility', a treatise on the aristocracy
Full title original language:
Adels Spiegel.|| Historischer || Ausf[ue]rlicher Bericht: Was Adel || sey vnd heisse/ Woher er kome/ Wie mancherley er sey/ Vnd || Was denselben ziere vnd erhalte ... || auffs fleissigste beschrieben/ Durch || M.Cyriacum Spangenberg.||
Abstract:
This document is associated with the core document: d_1531. This printer's preface was cited in a dispute among German scholars on what was called a 'publisher's property' as a precursor of the later concept of 'author's property'. The publisher refers to Christ's Seventh Commandment and brands reprinting as theft. Schmück's request that no one reprint his book is based on the claim that he had produced the book at 'quite significant expense'. Gieseke comments on this: 'It would have seemed obvious if publishers had regarded the expenses incurred in acquiring a new work (i.e. the author's fee, in particular), not merely as a debit entry in the publishing account but, rather, as what they had to pay in return for obtaining a special exploitation right (in the modern sense) to the work embodied in the manuscript (that is, a right going beyond mere physical ownership of the manuscript).' From the observation that Schmück did not put forward such an argument, Gieseke concludes that 'the notion of an exploitation right to the work acquired [by the publisher] from the author did not exist as yet'.
Commentary: No commentaries for this record.
Bibliography:
N/A
Related documents in this database:
1531: Basel Printers' Statute
Author: Cyriacus Spangenberg/ Michel Schmück
Publisher: Michel Schmück
Year: 1591
Location: Schmalkalden
Language: German
Source: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, online edition 'Rechtsquellen der frühen Neuzeit' http://rechtsquellen-digital.uni-hd.de
Persons referred to:
Schmück, Michel
Spangenberg, Cyriacus
Places referred to:
N/A
Cases referred to:
N/A
Institutions referred to:
N/A
Legislation:
N/A
Keywords:
Bible, the
book trade
divine law
manuscript
piracy
property theory, publishers' property
reprints
royalty/royalties
Responsible editor: Friedemann Kawohl