Mark Twain's sketches, new and old now first published in complete form |
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PETITION CONCERNING COPYRIGHT. |
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 | Mark Twain's sketches, new and old |  |
PETITION CONCERNING COPYRIGHT.
ASSEMBLED:
Whereas, The Constitution guarantees equal rights to all, backed by the Declaration
of Independence; and
Whereas, Under our laws, the right of property in real estate is perpetual; and
Whereas, Under our laws, the right of property in the literary result of a citizen's
intellectual labor is restricted to forty-two years; and
Whereas, Forty-two years seems an exceedingly just and righteous term, and a
sufficiently long one for the retention of property:
Therefore, Your petitioner, having the good of his country solely at heart, humbly
prays that “equal rights” and fair and equal treatment may be meted out to all
citizens, by the restriction of rights in all property, real estate included, to the
beneficent term of forty-two years. Then shall all men bless your honorable body
and be happy. And for this will your petitioner ever pray.
A PARAGRAPH NOT ADDED TO THE PETITION.
The charming absurdity of restricting property-rights in books to forty-two years
sticks prominently out in the fact that hardly any man's books ever live forty-two
years, or even the half of it; and so, for the sake of getting a shabby advantage of
the heirs of about one Scott or Burns or Milton in a hundred years, the law makers
of the “Great” Republic are content to leave that poor little pilfering edict upon
the statute books. It is like an emperor lying in wait to rob a phenix's nest, and
waiting the necessary century to get the chance.
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