ic intelligence, as well as of authors and
publishers themselves, that no valid objection to it appears to exist. In
Great Britain five copies of every book protected by copyright are
required for five different libraries, which appears somewhat
unreasonable.

Regarding the right of renewal of the term of copyright, it is a
significant fact that it is availed of in comparatively few instances,
compared with the whole body of publications. Multitudes of books are
published which not only never reach a second edition, but the sale of
which does not exhaust more than a small part of the copies printed of
the first. In these cases the right of renewal is waived and suffered to
lapse, from defect of commercial value in the work protected. In many
other cases the right of renewal expires before the author or his assigns
bethink them of the privilege secured to them under the law. It results
that more than nine-tenths, probably, of all books published are free to
any one to print, without reward or royalty to their authors, after a
very few years have elapsed. On the other hand, the exclusive right in
some publications of considerable commercial value is kept alive far
beyond the forty-two years included in the original and the renewal term,
by entry of new editions of the work, and securing copyright on the same.
While this method may not protect any of the original work from
republication by others, it enables the publishers of the copyright
edition to advertise such unauthorized reprints as imperfect, and without
the author's or editor's latest revision or additions.

The whole number of entries of copyright in the United States since we
became a nation considerably exceeds a million and a half. It may be of
interest to give the aggregate number of titles of publications entered
for copyright in each year since the transfer of the entire records to
Washington in 1870.

COPYRIGHTS REGISTERED IN THE UNITED STATES,
1870-1899.

1870 5,600 1874 16,283 1878 15,798
1871 12,688 1875 14,364 1879 18,125
1872 14,164 1876 14,882 1880 20,686
1873 15,352 1877 15,758 1881 21,075
1882 22,918 1888 38,225 1894 62,762
1883 25,273 1889 40,777 1895 67,572
1884 26,893 1890 42,758 1896 72,470
1885 28,410 1891 48,908 1897 74,321
1886 31,241 1892 54,735 1898 76,874
1887 35,083 1893 58