No, Sir, I wish him to drive on.'
Mr. Alexander Donaldson, bookseller of Edinburgh, had for some time
opened a shop in London, and sold his cheap editions of the most popular
English books, in defiance of the supposed common-law right of _Literary
Property_[1295]. Johnson, though he concurred in the opinion which was
afterwards sanctioned by a judgement of the House of Lords[1296], that
there was no such right, was at this time very angry that the
Booksellers of London, for whom he uniformly professed much regard,
should suffer from an invasion of what they had ever considered to be
secure: and he was loud and violent against Mr. Donaldson. 'He is a
fellow who takes advantage of the law to injure his brethren; for,
notwithstanding that the statute secures only fourteen years of
exclusive right, it has always been understood by _the trade_[1297], that
he, who buys the copyright of a book from the authour, obtains a
perpetual property; and upon that belief, numberless bargains are made
to transfer that property after the expiration of the statutory term.
Now Donaldson, I say, takes advantage here, of people who have really an
equitable title from usage; and if we consider how few of the books, of
which they buy the property, succeed so well as to bring profit, we
should be of opinion that the term of fourteen years is too short; it
should be sixty years.' DEMPSTER.
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