THE PHILOSOPHY OF COPYRIGHT

Abstract

IT is very likely that in modern times, if not in earlier days, there are no artists or authors of any kind, and especially no musical authors, who do not consider their as something to which as a matter of course they are entitled in morals; and if the law does not give it to them in full measure, they are inclined to say that the law falls behind what it should be in order to achieve its own ideal of justice. Few people of trained intelligence will be disposed to quarrel with them on this point; but all might not agree on the philosophical reason for such a claim. Nothing is more commonly heard among authors than expressions such as this: If a man makes a coat it belongs to him; if he makes a song, why should that not be his also? Yet, it is very curious to find that the self-evident equity of copyright protection, implied in such a question, is by no means so self-evident to the generality of mankind who are not authors and do not derive their opinions directly from authors or artists. The man who steals my coat, or the defaulting bank official who filches my savings, does not deny that I am entitled to my Yet the unsophisticated mass of people need considerable explanation before they understand that it is wrong to perform a musical composition in public, or even to copy the notes embodying it, without first getting the composer's permission. Who is wrong, the author who insists on his right, or the man on the street who fails to see that such right exists? One reason why people's ideas are confused regarding this subject may be the habit lawyers have of speaking of copyright as property. It is not hard to understand that in reality the privilege of exercising certain control over the products of one's artistic talent is not the same thing as the privilege of exercising dominion over some tangible thing. A work of art is not a tangible thing-it is a creation of the mind, to which a human being can have relations only through his mind, never through his body in the way in which he may handle his coat or his money. In the case of literary and musical works, the truth of this is seen easily enough even by untrained intellects. Hardly anybody will fail to understand that the paper and ink by means of which the