Show CAN NEWS BE copyrighted g alt in equity has been planted by afew york herald against the san chronicle to obtain an in joneson Jon eUon prohibiting the latter paper reproducing from the columns ot the former news matter which the has copyrighted the defense aw am chronicle is based upon two fx ige bunds the first of which is an edi announcement contained in the ia ia ima of the herald dated feb 27 1898 follows As i the herald has stated over an and d ww bower again its news with our campli isetts ia etts Is at the disposal of any paper fr fair and square enough to eve agte credit fw aw tt it the chronicle claims that after mak too uch such an announcement as that the d is es topped from proceeding chnat t any paper that has given due credit for news reproduced f from rom its and this the chronicle claims to have done but the second aro nd of the chronicles defense salow a question of far more importance to the intire entire newspaper press 0 of o the country it is the contention that news matter narratives of facts soul aad events can not be copyrighted thir issue thus joined between these awo wealthy and powerful journals ii is Jaw wt W with the most profound inter avery every ery newspaper in the united rik sews ws can be copyrighted the first paper to print the facts relating to some startling event such for example as the blowing up of the maine could prohibit any other paper in the whole country from publishing those facts without paying a royalty to be fixed by the newspaper lucky enough to have such a scoop the royalty would have to be paid or all the other papers in the union would have to wait twenty eight years the tha period coveted covered by a copyright before giving the news which by that time would be liable to exude an odor of staleness the preposterous results ensuing from the copyright of news are thus described by the chronicle of the lust it is now some fifteen years since the pretense was first set up that news new could be copyrighted yet during th the whole interval since the claim was put forth no attempt has been made to enforce it does any one suppose for a moment that if it were possible for a newspaper by the simple expedient of paying the fee of one dollar exacted for copyrighting anything capable of receiving the protection of the law pertaining to copyright to secure the valuable privilege of monopolizing the circulation of a piece of news newel for twenty eight years the matter would not have long since been placed beyond all possibility of dispute that t the he question is still an open one is prima facie evidence that no one believes that the claim that news can be copyrighted can be made to stick that the herald has no confidence in its ability to have the copyright law construed so as to cover news may be inferred from the admission which we find in the above quoted permission that any paper is welcome to use its news that is fall fait and square enough to give credit for it it is not necessary here to discuss what may be copyrighted further than to say that the law seems to be cle clear r that it must be a product of the antell intellect something in the nature of a creation and that it must have the element of permanency of value A piece of news has haa none of these characteristics it is simply a relation of facts and its value is destroyed by the very act of publication there Is no reason therefore why the protection of the law should be accorded to anything of the kind on the contrary public policy demands that no such restrictions should be placed upon the dissemination of intelligence if the claim of the herald were sound it would be possible for that or any other journal by a resort to the copyright law to prevent the publication by any other paper ot of let us say the presidents message if it happened to secure a copy in advance of its official publication indeed the herald goes a step farther and claims that if it cables the queens speech or an address of the president of prance france to the united states and copyrights the edition in which it appears no other paper may rint them although they may have been generally circulated in the countries where they were originally delivered to suggest such possibilities is to throw into plain relief the utter absurdity odthe idea that news can be copyrighted it is an attempt which every journal in the land has an interest in resisting the herald as well as five thousand other daily papers whose proprietors prie tors would all be subjected to vexatious suits if the practice of copyrighting became general for it must not be assumed for a moment that only the new york papers can resort to such a process news originates in other parts of the world than in that city and to attempt to confine its publication to the paper discovering it would constitute a muzzling of the press which americans would uld never tolerate aze I 1 the argument that a paper which incurs the expense of first obtaining news and has haa the enterprise to do this ought to be protected by the copyright law is far more than offset by the arguments which show what the public would suffer and be deprived of were such protection granted every paper in the country possibly barring some of the big eastern dailies will hope to see the new york herald defeated in this 1 suit |