PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Kant: On the Unlawfulness of Reprinting, Berlin (1785)

Source: Retrospektive Digitalisierung wissenschaftlicher Rezensionsorgane und Literaturzeitschriften des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem deutschen Sprachraum, http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/diglib/aufklaerung/index.htm.

Citation:
Kant: On the Unlawfulness of Reprinting, Berlin (1785), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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            Chapter 1 Page 13 of 15 total




(415)


effectively render the conduct of it impossible for him.

            A work of art, on the other hand, since it is an object, may be copied
and re-casted from a copy of it, and the copies thus made of it may be publicly
circulated without requiring the consent of the author of the original or of
those whom the latter used as the executors of his ideas. A drawing which
someone has made or has had engraved in copper, or used as the basis for a
sculpture in stone, metal, or plaster, by someone else can be reprinted or
re-cast and then circulated publicly by the person who buys these products -
just as everything that one can do in one's own name with an object belonging
to one does not require the consent of another person. Lippert's "Dactyliotheca"*
may be copied by anyone who owns a copy of it and knows how to go about such a
task, and offered for sale without this entitling its inventor to complain about
encroachments on his business. For it is a work ('opus' rather than
an act: 'opera'), which anyone who owns it can, without even indicating the
name of its originator, sell and thus also copy and bring into public circulation
under his own name. The writing of someone else, however, is the speech of that
person (opera), and he who publishes it can only speak to the public
in the name of the latter,


_____________________________

* A famous colllection of engravings of ancient gems published in 1755-62 by the
Dresden-based collector Philipp Daniel Lippert (1702-1785).

    



( 415 )


Führung desselben für ihn praktisch unmöglich
machen würde.
      Kunstwerke als Sachen können dagegen nach
einem Exemplar derselben, welches man rechtmäßig
erworben hat, nachgeahmt, abgeformt und die
Copien derselben öffentlich verkehrt werden,
ohne daß es der Einwilligung des Urhebers ihres
Originals, oder derer, welcher er sich als
Werkmeister seiner Ideen bedient hat, bedürfe.
Eine Zeichnung, die jemand entworfen, oder
durch einen andern hat in Kupfer stechen, oder
in Stein, Metall, oder Gips ausführen lassen,
kann von dem, der diese Producte kauft,
abgedruckt oder abgegossen und so öffentlich
verkehrt werden; so wie alles, was jemand mit
seiner Sache in seinem eigenen Namen verrichten
kann, der Einwilligung eines andern nicht bedarf.
Lipperts Daktyliothek kann von jedem Besitzer
derselben, der es versteht, nachgeahmt und zum
Verkauf ausgestellt werden, ohne daß der Erfinder
derselben über Eingriffe in seine Geschäfte
klagen könne. Denn sie ist ein Werk (opus, nicht
opera alterius), welches ein jeder, der es
besitzt, ohne einmal den Namen des Urhebers zu
nennen, veräußern, mithin auch nachmachen und
auf seinen eigenen Namen als das seinige zum
öffentlichen Verkehr brauchen kann. Die Schrift
aber eines andern ist die Rede einer Person
(opera); und der, welcher sie verlegt, kann nur
im Namen dieses andern zum Publicum reden

    


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