# Primary Sources on Copyright - Record Viewer
Danvila’s Copyright Treatise , Madrid (1882)

Source: Biblioteca Nacional de España, signature 1/77813

Citation:
Danvila’s Copyright Treatise , Madrid (1882), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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            Chapter 1 Page 10 of 11 total



                        36
            
            
            copyright can be developed and confirmed by the
            invention of the press and auxiliary arts that enrich the field of intelligence.
            All the alarms voiced at the damaging consequences of copyright are fanciful
            and the opposing and persistent resistance against the recognition
            of copyright is a retrograde resistance, a resistance against which every moral
            movement of legislations and sentiments is against.
            
            The idea of copyright, which is badly defined and worse known,
            begins to be appreciated by universal conscience. And after four centuries,
            it is still growing and being clarified, and especially after the last century,
            it develops with amazing speed. Everybody already admits that the matter
            of perpetuity is a question of honour for copyright, even more than a question of interest
            that seriously affects the strength of territorial property, which darkens the idea itself
            of property rights and exposes it to the most interested parties' recognition of the luminous
            beacon of justice.
            
            Therefore, undoubtedly copyright is a common property and it does not require
            anything more than the general system of law for its existence. It is easy to understand
            then that its constitution should be the object of the above mentioned (general) law and
            of a regulation that specifies the ways to enforce it. To this effect, the following two resolutions
            should be taken: the establishment of a copyright office (registry) and its applicable tax. In order to
            reconcile authors' rights with the right that society might have for spreading useful knowledge,
            and what the progress of the science undoubtedly demands, it should also be specified
            an obligation for every author
            

    


                        36
            
            
            propiedad intelectual puede desenvolverse y afirmarse
            por la invencion de la imprenta y de las artes acceso-
            rias que fecundizan el campo de la inteligencia. Todas
             las alarmas manifestadas sobre las consecuencias de la
            propiedad intelectual son quiméricas, y la resistencia
            opuesta con tanta pertinacia al reconocimiento de la
            propiedad intelectual, es una resistencia retrógrada,
            contra la cual protesta todo el movimiento moral de las
            legislaciones y de los sentimientos. La idea de la pro-
            piedad intelectual, mal definida y peor conocida aun,
            comienza á ser apreciada por la conciencia universal, y
            no cesa de agrandarse y esclarecerse después de cuatro
            siglos, y sobre todo, después del último, se desenvuelve
            con una rapidez que asombra, y no hay nadie que no
            reconozca ya, que la cuestión de la perpetuidad es para la
            propiedad intelectual una cuestión de honor, más que
            una cuestion de interes, que afecta seriamente á la soli-
            dez de la propiedad territorial, que oscurece la idea
            misma del derecho de propiedad, y presenta á los ojos
            de los más interesados en reconocerla el faro luminoso
            de la justicia.
            
            Es indudable, pues, que la propiedad intelectual es
            una propiedad del órden comun, y que para vivir no
            necesita otra cosa que el régimen de la ley general, por
            lo que es fácil comprender, que su constitucion debe ser
            objeto de dicha ley y de una reglamentacion que deter-
            mine los medios practicos de ejecutarla. Conviene, al
            efecto, adoptar dos resoluciones: el establecimiento de
            un registro de la propiedad intelectual y el impuesto
            sobre la misma. En la necesidad de conciliar el derecho
            de los autores con el que pueda tener la sociedad en la
            propagacion de los conocimientos útiles, y el que indu-
            dablemente exige el progreso de la ciencia, debe dete-
            rminarse tambien la obligacion en todo autor de tener

    

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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