Before the days of international copyright no American author's books were pirated more freely by Canadian publishers than those of Mark Twain.It was always a sore point with him that these books, cheaply printed, found their way into the United States, and were sold in competition with his better editions.The law on the subject seemed to be rather hazy, and its various interpretations exasperating.In the next unmailed letter Mark Twain relieves himself to a misguided official.The letter is worth reading today, if for no other reason, to show the absurdity of copyright conditions which prevailed at that time.
Unmailed Letter to H.C.Christiancy, on book Piracy:
HARTFORD, Dec.18, '87.
H.C.CHRISTIANCY, ESQ.
DEAR SIR,-- As I understand it, the position of the U.S.Government is this: If a person be captured on the border with counterfeit bonds in his hands--bonds of the N.Y.Central Railway, for instance--the procedure in his case shall be as follows:
1.If the N.Y.C.have not previously filed in the several police offices along the border, proof of ownership of the originals of the bonds, the government officials must collect a duty on the counterfeits, and then let them go ahead and circulate in this country.
2.But if there is proof already on file, then the N.Y.C.may pay the duty and take the counterfeits.
But in no case will the United States consent to go without its share of the swag.It is delicious.The biggest and proudest government on earth turned sneak-thief; collecting pennies on stolen property, and pocketing them with a greasy and libidinous leer; going into partnership with foreign thieves to rob its own children; and when the child escapes the foreigner, descending to the abysmal baseness of hanging on and robbing the infant all alone by itself! Dear sir, this is not any more respectable than for a father to collect toll on the forced prostitution of his own daughter; in fact it is the same thing.Upon these terms, what is a U.S.custom house but a "fence?" That is all it is: a legalized trader in stolen goods.
And this nasty law, this filthy law, this unspeakable law calls itself a "regulation for the protection of owners of copyright!" Can sarcasm go further than that? In what way does it protect them? Inspiration itself could not furnish a rational answer to that question.Whom does it protect, then? Nobody, as far as I can see, but the foreign thief-sometimes--and his fellow-footpad the U.S.government, all the time.
What could the Central Company do with the counterfeit bonds after it had bought them of the star spangled banner Master-thief? Sell them at a dollar apiece and fetch down the market for the genuine hundred-dollar bond? What could I do with that 20-cent copy of "Roughing It" which the United States has collared on the border and is waiting to release to me for cash in case I am willing to come down to its moral level and help rob myself? Sell it at ten or fifteen cents--duty added--and destroy the market for the original $3,50 book? Who ever did invent that law? Iwould like to know the name of that immortal jackass.
Dear sir, I appreciate your courtesy in stretching your authority in the desire to do me a kindness, and I sincerely thank you for it.But I have no use for that book; and if I were even starving for it I would not pay duty on in either to get it or suppress it.No doubt there are ways in which I might consent to go into partnership with thieves and fences, but this is not one of them.This one revolts the remains of my self-respect; turns my stomach.I think I could companion with a highwayman who carried a shot-gun and took many risks; yes, I think I should like that if I were younger; but to go in with a big rich government that robs paupers, and the widows and orphans of paupers and takes no risk--why the thought just gags me.
Oh, no, I shall never pay any duties on pirated books of mine.I am much too respectable for that--yet awhile.But here--one thing that grovels me is this: as far as I can discover--while freely granting that the U.S.copyright laws are far and away the most idiotic that exist anywhere on the face of the earth--they don't authorize the government to admit pirated books into this country, toll or no toll.And so I think that that regulation is the invention of one of those people--as a rule, early stricken of God, intellectually--the departmental interpreters of the laws, in Washington.They can always be depended on to take any reasonably good law and interpret the common sense all out of it.They can be depended on, every time, to defeat a good law, and make it inoperative--yes, and utterly grotesque, too, mere matter for laughter and derision.Take some of the decisions of the Post-office Department, for instance--though I do not mean to suggest that that asylum is any worse than the others for the breeding and nourishing of incredible lunatics--I merely instance it because it happens to be the first to come into my mind.Take that case of a few years ago where the P.M.General suddenly issued an edict requiring you to add the name of the State after Boston, New York, Chicago, &c, in your superscriptions, on pain of having your letter stopped and forwarded to the dead-letter office; yes, and Ibelieve he required the county, too.He made one little concession in favor of New York: you could say "New York City," and stop there; but if you left off the "city," you must add "N.Y." to your "New York." Why, it threw the business of the whole country into chaos and brought commerce almost to a stand-still.Now think of that! When that man goes to--to--well, wherever he is going to--we shan't want the microscopic details of his address.I guess we can find him.
Well, as I was saying, I believe that this whole paltry and ridiculous swindle is a pure creation of one of those cabbages that used to be at the head of one of those Retreats down there--Departments, you know--and that you will find it so, if you will look into it.And moreover--but land, I reckon we are both tired by this time.
Truly Yours, MARK TWAIN.