CHAP I.—THE GROUNDS OF THE LIBRARY CLAIM EXAMINED

Having brought before the reader the state of the law with reference to the contracted period during which the rights of authors are protected, and animadverted upon the monstrous injustice of permitting the productions of intellectual labor to become the object of common plunder after twenty-eight years, whilst the fruits of ordinary industry were wisely secured in perpetuity; we now turn to the consideration of the next feature of oppression in these statutes “for the encouragement of learning.” After curtailing the duration of the right of literary property, from a perpetuity to the brief term of twenty-eight years (in return for which restraint, it might have been anticipated that some splendid boon was intended to be conferred) the Acts of Parliament proceed to impose a tax of eleven copies on every publication, whether the most rare and expensive, or the cheapest and most insignificant.

Although the statutes impose a penalty of three pence per sheet for pirating copyright, the old mode of redress by an action at law for damages, or an injunction and an account in equity has always been and is still preferred.