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Hardee's Memorial, Richmond (1863)
Source: Boston Athenaeum P&W 5481: William Joseph Hardee, Memorial to the Congress of the Confederate States, December 14, 1863 (Mobile: 1863).
Citation:
Hardee's Memorial, Richmond (1863), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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2
has no lot or share. He has to look to his own Government and
people for compensation for his mental labor, and protection from an
infringement of it. His remittances under his contract with the
Philadelphia publishers, ceased with the formation of the Confederate
Government, and he has no idea they will ever again acknowledge the
contract which existed before the war, even if the Government of the
United States has overlooked the author's interest in the contract with
them (the publishers) in their efforts to confiscate property of Con-
federate citizens.
At the beginning of the war the author revised his original work,
as published in Philadelphia; made many material alterations and im-
provements therein, though leaving it substantially the same and then
made a contract with S. H. Goetzel, of Mobile, for the publication of
the work for the use of the army and people of the Confederate States,
by which contract, the said Goetzel was to take out a copy-right for
the same, in his own name incur all the expense of publication, and
pay to the said Hardee twenty cents per copy, for each copy sold.
The copy-right of said work was duly entered and secured by said
Goetzel in the form and manner required by existing laws on that
subject, in the clerk's office of the district court of the Confederate
States, for the district of Alabama, and since then nine editions of
the same has been published; and the said Goetzel, at all times, kept
on hand a sufficient number of copies to meet all reasonable needs and
demands, of the army and people of the Confederate States. Although
there had been no copy-right secured in the United State, as we had
formed a separate Government, and as the people of the United States
had become a foreign people, and their Government a foreign Govern-
ment, your memorialists considered that a copy-right, entered and
secured under the Confederate Government, was a valid right, and
would be protected by the Confederate courts, especially as the
author had lost, all his rights for compensation, under his contract
with a citizen of the United States.
Notwithstanding the copy-right of your memorialist, various persons
in the Confederate States have published private editions of said
work, and have been selling them in various parts of the country to
the detriment of the rights and interests of the author and publisher
thereof.
The republications have generally been of the old Lippincott edi-
tion, and not containing the alterations, changes and improvements
made by the genuine, or copy-right edition, which are important and
material, and which has created some confusion in army instruction
because of different versions of the same work being in use.
Your memorialist caused a bill to be filed in the district court of
Alabama against Francis Titcomb, a bookseller in Mobile, who kept
on sale a private edition of said work, published in Richmond, the
name being a copy of the original Lippincott edition, for an infringe-
ment of the copy-right of your memorialist, on which a provisional
injunction issued.
The same proceedings were taken against one Randolph, of Rich-
mond, and several booksellers in Memphis before the fall of that place.
Source: Boston Athenaeum P&W 5481: William Joseph Hardee, Memorial to the Congress of the Confederate States, December 14, 1863 (Mobile: 1863).
Citation:
Hardee's Memorial, Richmond (1863), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
No Translation available.
has no lot or share. He has to look to his own Government and
people for compensation for his mental labor, and protection from an
infringement of it. His remittances under his contract with the
Philadelphia publishers, ceased with the formation of the Confederate
Government, and he has no idea they will ever again acknowledge the
contract which existed before the war, even if the Government of the
United States has overlooked the author's interest in the contract with
them (the publishers) in their efforts to confiscate property of Con-
federate citizens.
At the beginning of the war the author revised his original work,
as published in Philadelphia; made many material alterations and im-
provements therein, though leaving it substantially the same and then
made a contract with S. H. Goetzel, of Mobile, for the publication of
the work for the use of the army and people of the Confederate States,
by which contract, the said Goetzel was to take out a copy-right for
the same, in his own name incur all the expense of publication, and
pay to the said Hardee twenty cents per copy, for each copy sold.
The copy-right of said work was duly entered and secured by said
Goetzel in the form and manner required by existing laws on that
subject, in the clerk's office of the district court of the Confederate
States, for the district of Alabama, and since then nine editions of
the same has been published; and the said Goetzel, at all times, kept
on hand a sufficient number of copies to meet all reasonable needs and
demands, of the army and people of the Confederate States. Although
there had been no copy-right secured in the United State, as we had
formed a separate Government, and as the people of the United States
had become a foreign people, and their Government a foreign Govern-
ment, your memorialists considered that a copy-right, entered and
secured under the Confederate Government, was a valid right, and
would be protected by the Confederate courts, especially as the
author had lost, all his rights for compensation, under his contract
with a citizen of the United States.
Notwithstanding the copy-right of your memorialist, various persons
in the Confederate States have published private editions of said
work, and have been selling them in various parts of the country to
the detriment of the rights and interests of the author and publisher
thereof.
The republications have generally been of the old Lippincott edi-
tion, and not containing the alterations, changes and improvements
made by the genuine, or copy-right edition, which are important and
material, and which has created some confusion in army instruction
because of different versions of the same work being in use.
Your memorialist caused a bill to be filed in the district court of
Alabama against Francis Titcomb, a bookseller in Mobile, who kept
on sale a private edition of said work, published in Richmond, the
name being a copy of the original Lippincott edition, for an infringe-
ment of the copy-right of your memorialist, on which a provisional
injunction issued.
The same proceedings were taken against one Randolph, of Rich-
mond, and several booksellers in Memphis before the fall of that place.