guard any other property.
But when once put in type and multiplied through the printing-press, his
claim to an exclusive right has to be guarded by a special statute,
otherwise it is held to be abandoned (like the articles in a newspaper)
to the public. This special protection is furnished in nearly all
civilized countries by copyright law.

What we call "copyright" is an exclusive right to multiply copies of any
publication for sale. Domestic copyright, which is all we formerly had in
this country, is limited to the United States. International copyright,
which has now been enacted, extends the right of American authors to
foreign countries, and recognizes a parallel right of foreign authors in
our own. There is nothing in the constitutional provision which restrains
Congress from granting copyright to other than American citizens. Patent
right, coming under the same clause of the Constitution, has been
extended to foreigners. Out of over 20,000 patents annually issued, about
2,500 (or 12 per cent.) are issued to foreigners, while American patents
are similarly protected abroad. If we have international patent right,
why not international copyright? The grant of power is the same; both
patent right and copyright are for a limited time; both rights during
this time are exclusive; and both rest upon the broad ground of the
promotion of science and the useful arts. If copyright is justifiable at
all, if authors are to be secured a reward for their labors, they claim
that all who use them should contribute equally to this result. The
principle of copyright once admitted, it cannot logically be confined to
State lines or national boundaries. There appears to be no middle ground
between the doctrine of common property in all productions of the
intellect--which leads us to communism by the shortest road--and the
admission that copyright is due, while its limited term lasts, from all
who use the works of an author, wherever found.

Accordingly, international copyright has become the policy of nearly all
civilized nations. The term of copyright is longer in most countries than
in the United States, ranging from the life of the author and seven years
beyond, in England, to a life term and fifty years additional in France
and Russia. Copyright is thus made a life tenure and something more in
all countries except our own, where its utmost limit is forty-two years.
This may perhaps be held to represent a fair average lifetime, reck