International Copyright Law (1891)

Adopting the Copyright Act in 1790, the United States did not protect the work of foreign authors in it. In fact, any work created abroad by a subject of a foreign state could be reprinted in the United States without consequences, and the authors of the original works did not receive remuneration.

It was beneficial for American publishers to print foreign works without paying royalties to authors of works, while authors from the United States needed to pay royalties. On the other hand, during the adoption of the Copyright Act in 1790, North American literature was not sufficiently developed and a similar problem could not arise at the end of the 18th century, however, a hundred years later, authors from the United States gained fame and could not be ignored ^{[ 2]} .

For the international regulation of relations within the framework of the protection of intellectual property, in 1886 in Bern seven states signed the Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works . Although the United States was an observer in the drafting and signing of the convention, they did not sign it until 1989. However, international pressure prompted the Senate to enact the International Copyright Law in 1891, which would protect the copyrights of foreign citizens. According to Edward Samuels, such protection turned out to be somewhat illusory ^[2] .

The law (26 Stat. 1106) was adopted on March 3, 1891, at the . The law entered into force on July 1, 1891. And on July 3, the first foreign work, a play entitled "Saints and Sinners" by British writer Henry Arthur Jones , was registered in the United States in accordance with the law ^[3] .

The adoption of the International Copyright Law in 1891, after 55 years of discussion, meant that the United States would finally abide by the principle of reciprocity, and that they would be ready to recognize the rights of foreign authors.

According to Edward Samuels, the law passed in 1891 was a compromise that granted the foreign authors the rights they claimed. Samuels emphasizes that the protection of works by foreign authors began on the condition that any foreign “book, photograph, or lithograph” must be published simultaneously in the author’s homeland and in the United States. In addition, foreign authors had to register their work and deposit copies in the United States in order to receive protection in this country. This fact greatly complicated the situation for foreign authors. Over the next few decades, Congress made several amendments to rectify the situation. For example, a grace period was established for foreign authors to have time to comply with the formalities of registration in the USA ^[2] .

Barbara Ringer named the role of the United States in international copyright before the Second World War as a country with intellectual myopia, political isolationism and economic self-interest ^[4] .

• US copyright
• U.S. Copyright Act (1831)

• Allingham, Philip V. Nineteenth-Century British and American Copyright Law . The Wictorian Web (January 5, 2001). Date of treatment April 19, 2016.
• Bowden, Edwin T. Henry James and the Struggle for International Copyright: An Unnoticed Item in the James Bibliography // American Literature. - Duke University Press, 1953. - Vol. 24. - 537 s.
• Goldstein, Paul. Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox // American Literature. - Revised edition. - Stanford University Press, 2003 .-- P. 150-151. - ISBN 0-8047-4748-2 .