PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Amended music publishers' agreement against piracy, Leipzig (1830)

Source: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv Leipzig

Citation:
Amended music publishers' agreement against piracy, Leipzig (1830), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

Back | Record | Images | Commentaries: [1]
Record-ID: d_1830a

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_d_1830a

Full title:
Second Charter of the German Music Publishers' Union Against Piracy, as agreed on at the Leipzig fair in 1830

Full title original language:
Erweiterungsacte

Abstract:
The agreements made by German music publishers over the nineteenth century are a good example of publishers' initiatives to outweigh the absence of effective copyright regulations at both the national and international level. The agreement of 1830 was signed by publishers from Saxony and Austria (thus covering Leipzig and Vienna, the main centres of the German music market) and other German states. The signatories accepted the concept of a publisher's 'property in the melody' - something that was implemented in a Saxon Statute of 1831 and still exists in contemporary German copyright as 'starrer Melodienschutz' ('rigid protection of melodies' - UrhR § 24(2)). A priority right among German publishers for their reprints of foreign - mostly Parisian ' music was established. A register of music publications (both sheet music and books on composers, music theory etc.) was introduced, in order to keep track of original publishers and lawful copyright holders. Coming after the less formal agreement of the preceding year (d_1829), the 1830 convention was a real charter aimed at setting up a permanent association. It included provisions for a board to 'represent the Union' and a Secretary vested with far-reaching powers. Boards of arbitrators were duly chosen at the annual meetings. However, some publishers refused to join the Union and could therefore not be restrained from undertaking reprint editions. The copyright aspect of the Association became less important after the promulgation of the Prussian Copyright Act (d_1837a) and the Federal Assembly directive (Bundesbeschluß) of the same year (d_1837b). The Association maintained a copyright register from 1831 to 1903 and developed into a professional association which still exists as the Deutscher Musikverlegerverband (German Music Publishers' Association).

1 Commentary:
commentary_d_1830a

Bibliography:
N/A

Related documents in this database:
1829: Music publishers' agreement to ban reprinting

Author: Hofmeister, Friedrich (1782-1864)

Publisher: Unpublished

Year: 1830

Location: Leipzig

Language: German

Source: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv Leipzig

Persons referred to:
André, Johann Anton
Cosmar, Alexander
Dunst, Franz Philipp
Hartmann, C. H.
Haslinger, Tobias
Hofmeister, Friedrich
Härtel, Wilhelm
Krause, H.
Laue, Friedrich
Lose, C. C.
Meyer, Gottfried Martin
Niemeyer, Georg Wilhelm
Peters, Carl Friedrich
Probst, Heinrich Albert
Schott, Bernhard
Schuberth, Julius Ferdinand Georg
Simrock, Nikolaus
Spehr, Johann Peter

Places referred to:
Berlin
Bonn
Braunschweig
England
France
Frankfurt
Leipzig
Mainz
Offenbach
Vienna
Wolfenbüttel

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
B. Schott's Söhne, music publishers (f.1770)
Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig (f.1719)
C. C. Lose, Copenhagen, music publishers (f.1802)
Cosmar & Krause, music publishers (f.1826)
German music publishers' Union Against Piracy (1830)
N. Simrock, music publishers (f.1793)
Registry Office of the Union Against Piracy, Leipzig
Schuberth & Niemeyer, music publishers (f.1829)

Legislation:
N/A

Keywords:
Börsenverein (German Publishers' and Booksellers' organisation)
Napoleonic Wars
Vienna Congress
arrangement
authenticity
book fairs
book market
book trade
derivatives
foreign reprints
forgery
free trade
importation
interest groups
international agreements, bilateral
music publishing
music, protected subject matter
penalties, paid to publisher(s)
piracy
reciprocity
registration
reprints
societies, copyright
societies, publishers'

Responsible editor: Friedemann Kawohl


Copyright History resource developed in partnership with:

Our Partners

Copyright statement

You may copy and distribute the translations and commentaries in this resource, or parts of such translations and commentaries, in any medium, for non-commercial purposes as long as the authorship of the commentaries and translations is acknowledged, and you indicate the source as Bently & Kretschmer (eds), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) (www.copyrighthistory.org).

With the exception of commentaries that are available under a CC-BY licence (compliant with UKRI policy) you may not publish individual documents or parts of the database for any commercial purposes, including charging a fee for providing access to these documents via a network. This licence does not affect your statutory rights of fair dealing.

Although the original documents in this database are in the public domain, we are unable to grant you the right to reproduce or duplicate some of these documents in so far as the images or scans are protected by copyright or we have only been able to reproduce them here by giving contractual undertakings. For the status of any particular images, please consult the information relating to copyright in the bibliographic records.

Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) is co-published by Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ, UK and CREATe, School of Law, University of Glasgow, 10 The Square, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK