So far as it goes, the privilege of importation is an inroad on the rights given to the copyright proprietor. It is an inconsiderable inroad so far as most popular books--novels and the like--which have circulation are concerned. The few hundred books that come to individuals here amount to not a very substantial burden upon the proprietor of such copyrights. But there are certain classes of books, expensive to produce, and with a very limited circulation--books of a scientific character, books illustrated with plates--and they circulate among the precise classes; that is, the libraries and the colleges and these individuals who are particular about their libraries, the precise individuals who import books under these exceptions; and there were instances brought before the conference where publishers here had declined to undertake a book which would have been valuable to the public, which would have been valuable to the typesetter to set up, and the American publisher to bring out, and to the American bookseller to sell, for the reason that the very limited public which these books addressed would all, in the natural course of events, have their demands filled through these exceptions to the prohibition of importations.
That did not hurt the libraries or the individuals who habitually get English editions. It did hurt, we maintain, the American public, the reading public, and a great many individuals among the American producing classes. So that there was a modification requested of the present rules, and the modification in regard to the libraries is this: There is to be not exceeding one copy to be introduced on an invoice, the privilege is not to relate to books which have their origin here in America. With your permission, I will briefly explain those two points. In the first place, ordinarily a library or a college needs only one book at a time. If it needs another copy of the same book it is not too much to ask that it make another importation to bring it in. Under the present rule, while delicate and careful men would not take advantage of it, it is constantly a temptation to a librarian who can import free of duty and free of the copyright proprietor's claims, two copies of a book from England, to import one for the legitimate use of the library and one for some other use. The effect of that influence can not be particularly measured.