STATEMENT OF GEORGE W. OGILVIE, ESQ., OF CHICAGO.
Mr. OGILVIE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, as I understand that this bill is to take the place very largely of the copyright act of 1891, it may be proper to refer to some of the arguments that were advanced at that time as to why that particular bill should pass. In furtherance of that idea, I read from The Question of Copyright, by George Haven Putnam, on page 103, in which it is said:
It is admitted that the proposed act or any other of a similar nature will raise the price of the very cheap reprints of English stories yet to be written a few cents apiece. A pamphlet of that sort now costing 20 cents will then cost 25 cents. Of the additional price, 2 cents will go to the author and 3 cents will go into better paper, better print, and better binding. For the 5 cents of increased cost an American story will be furnished oftener than an English story, an American author will get pay for his labor, and the reader will get a book that is 100 per cent better than the old one in paper, print, and binding.
I submit that if an additional cost of 3 cents is to go into paper, print, and binding, and will produce a book that is 100 per cent better than the 20-cent book, and 2 cents of the increased price is to go to the author, that the publisher would receive no benefit whatever; and it is well to bear in mind that the disinterested patriots who requested the passage of the international copyright law did so for the purpose of benefiting not themselves, but the author of a book 2 cents per copy, and the producer of paper, printing, and binding 3 cents per copy, out of which they got nothing. It is the same gentlemen, as I understood it, who were sponsors for that bill who are the sponsors for this. Twenty cents per copy for a book costing 3 cents to produce shows a profit somewhere of 666 per cent; and it is probable that they were satisfied with that percentage. As a basis for further remark along that line, I desire to draw your attention to section 13 on page 6 of the bill, as I have it here.
Mr. OGILVIE. It is section 13 of the third paragraph [reading]:
Any person who, for the purpose of obtaining a copyright, shall knowingly be guilty of making a false affidavit as to his having complied with the above conditions shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, and all of his rights and privileges under said copyright shall thereafter be forfeited.