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5 translated pages

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Chapter 1 Page 1

The

REPRINTING OF BOOKS

examined

in the light
of true

Principles of Law

by

Johann Stephan Pütter,

Counsel by appointment of the King of Great Britain and
Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg,
and Professor of public law
at the University of Göttingen

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________________________________________


Göttingen

published by the widow of A. Vandenhoeck
1774.

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Preface

            The cases in which a book that has already appeared in print is
reprinted by someone else are so varied, and occur under such different
circumstances, that it is equally impossible to condemn all reprints as it
is to defend them all. A precise definition and thorough knowledge of the
matter are therefore necessary if one wants to make a well founded judgement
on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of reprinting.
            Not everyone knows the circumstances which are relevant here as
thoroughly as would be necessary; nor does everyone have the time and
inclination to devote so much consideration to one single question. So it
is not surprising that since everyone looks at it from a different point
of view, opinions on this matter have differed so greatly.

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It is only the universal freedom to reprint books, which for some time
has not only found proponents now and then but is also beginning to be
put into practice quite a lot, that to me seems worth the effort of
examining it in the light of true principles of law and in more detail
than has been the case so far. I would by no means consider the time and
effort spent on this to have been in vain, if those who until now may
perhaps not have looked into this matter in all its circumstances were
moved to do so by the present book.
            At the time that I took up my pen and when printing of this
book had already begun, I could not foresee then that this very question
would acquire such importance in England. Perhaps the presentation of my
arguments would have benefited if I had been able to wait and see what
the British Parliament will decide upon regarding the booksellers’
petition that was recently put forward to it.
            If the German Imperial constitution presented less difficulties
in the way of establishing a settlement that would hold throughout the
whole Empire, and, similarly, allowing full execution of an Imperial
settlement once it had been reached, the issue at stake would unquestionably
be as worthy of the attention of a general Imperial Diet as it is of
the British Parliament.
            As it is, it would be sufficient if only more of the various
Imperial Estates were to issue decrees like those of the Electorate of
Saxony and the Imperial City of Nuremberg, cited as examples in this
book (§.178 and §.154 a, respectively), or even if they were just to
let themselves be guided by

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such convictions as those professed by the Royal ministry in Hanover
(§.160 a).
            Moreover, I don’t believe that in places where the otherwise
valid principle of giving the greatest possible freedom to everything
that has to do with commerce, without any restrictions whatsoever,
is adopted, the principle of general freedom of reprinting- which is
effectively unlimited freedom to buy and sell stolen wares- can be of
any use. Perhaps, again, it will be up to the city of Hamburg to do
yet another service to book publishing and German letters, and
introduce such legislation whose effect would be even more wide-
reaching than that of Nuremberg?
            The profits which unauthorized reprints by, say, Buchenröder*
or Hechtel* may make, are nothing compared to the damage which a
reprint by Trattner** of Büchsing’s “Geography” would cause to the
publisher Bohn, not to mention the universal ruin which all book
publishing in Germany and all German letters would suffer from a
general freedom of reprinting.
            Moreover, the benefit which one may otherwise, not without
reason, expect from free competition between factories or businesses,
in this case cannot fail to come to nothing. Since, for all the
thousands of copies of Büchsing’s “Geography” that Bohn was able to
publish, and thereby to set a very reasonable price for this
universally valuable book, as long as he did not have to fear
unauthorized reprinting; no publisher would risk printing more than
a few hundred copies at a time, if a general freedom of reprinting
were to hold, so that he might at least be able to sell off his
edition before some unauthorized reprinter came along and ruined
it. And how large would this reprinter dare to make his edition so
as not to be thwarted by yet another reprinter? As a result the
prices of books would certainly not come down.

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* Minor publishers. Hechtel, based in Frankfurt-on-Main, brought
out an unauthorized reprint of one of J.S. Pütter’s scholarly
works in 1753: the Royal ministry in Hanover wrote to the municipal
authorities in Frankfurt, protesting against this injustice and
demanding a ban on any sales of the reprint.

** A major publisher, based in Vienna, who was notorious for
the many pirate editions he published.

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Moreover, that the value of scholarly goods cannot just be
measured by the number of pages, is surely as reasonable as
not expecting to be sold a barrel of Rhine wine for the same
price as a barrel of French wine.
            Thus, if all that matters is to level the price of
works by deserving authors to that of dispensable or mediocre
books; if, under this pretext, Münchhausen’s “Hausvater”,
say, or Pusendorf’s “Observations”, are to be reprinted freely;
and if pseudo-booksellers, who only dare to call themselves
by assumed names, or those who are new to the publishing
business and who wish to make their first appearance in such
a manner, start asking to be paid in advance so that it is the
reading public who hands them the means to undertake such
dishonourable enterprises; this is most certainly a disservice
to the community as a whole, for in such a way book publishing
and learning would soon wither away.
            The only way a book publisher can attain honour and
respect is by doing his bit to seek out and encourage scholars
who are striving to work on fields of learning which haven’t
been worked on yet, or who hope to do this better than their
predecessors. That is the only way to also maintain a spirit
of healthy competition between writers. Unauthorized book
reprinting, on the other hand, is a sure way of stifling both
learning and book publishing.


Göttingen, 14 April 1774.



Translation by: Luis Sundkvist (of the Preface)