The Secretary of State to
Minister Buck.
Department of State,
Washington, December 31,
1900.
No. 335.]
Sir: Referring to previous correspondence on
the subject of negotiating a copyright agreement between the United
States and Japan, I inclose herewith for your information copiesa of letters from the
American Copyright League and others, urging the early conclusion of
such an agreement.
You will study the matter in the light of the reported copyright
agreement between Japan and Germany, and see if the way may not be open
for a conventional understanding between the United States and Japan
which shall equally protect American copyright in the Empire.
No reason is seen why a reciprocal declaration, in the shape of a
protocol, if preferred, conforming to the existing copyright law of the
United States, and substantially on the lines of the understandings
reached with other nations, should not meet the case, by giving to the
declaration such form and scope as may harmonize with the Japanese law
on the subject.
Your full report on the subject will be awaited with interest, in the
hope that means may be found to terminate a condition as inequitable as
it is injurious.
Two copies each of the department’s circular of July 25, 1899, and of the
President’s proclamations of the conclusion or copyright conventions
with Belgium, France, Great Britain, Switzerland,b Germany, Italy,
Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, and the Netherlands
are herewith inclosed for your information.
I am, sir, etc.,
[Inclosure.—Circular.]
copyrights.
Department of State,
Washington, July 25,
1899.
Sir: On May 7, 1891, by a circular
instruction, your predecessor was directed to communicate to the
government to which he was accredited a copy of the act of Congress
approved March 3, 1891, entitled “An act to amend title 60, chapter
3, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to
copyrights,” and to call attention to the fact that the benefits of
the statute are extended to the citizens of foreign states only
after a proclamation of the President, to be issued under the
conditions specified in section 13.
[Page 969]
A similar notification was made to the other governments with which
the United States maintained relations. As the result of
correspondence and negotiations on the subject, the President has
from time to time issued proclamations, extending the provisions of
the act of March 3, 1891, to the citizens or subjects of those
foreign states or nations which permit to citizens of the United
States of America the benefit of copyright on substantially the same
basis as their own citizens, in accordance with the ascertainment of
the existence of this, the first, condition specified in the
statute.
No proclamation has issued under the second condition expressed in
the statute, to wit, that the foreign state or nation be a party to
an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the
granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United
States of America may at its pleasure become a party to such
agreement, and, indeed, the greater convenience and simplicity of
the first condition seems to make its ascertainment preferable as
the basis of an international understanding.
The proclamations so far issued under the first condition are as
follows:
- Belgium, July 1, 1891.
- France, July 1, 1891.
- Great Britain and the British possessions, July 1,
1891.
- Switzerland, July 1, 1891.
- German Empire, April 15, 1892.
- Italy, October 31, 1892.
- Denmark, May 8, 1893.
- Portugal, July 20, 1893.
- Spain, July 10, 1895.
- Mexico, February 27, 1896.
- Chile, May 25, 1896.
No similar agreement has been reached with the government to which
you are accredited, although the matter was recalled to attention by
the department’s circulars of May 23, 1893, and February 21, 1896.
It is possible that the subject may have been considered without a
definite result, and that an understanding in this regard remains in
abeyance. It may also be that the Government to which you are
accredited had regarded the matter unfavorably, owing to some
misapprehension of the intent of the United States statute and the
scope and operation of the arrangement proposed. In some instances,
as in the case of the Spanish negotiation, an agreement was only
reached by removing the impression which existed that the statute
contemplated a reciprocal identity of the provisions of copyright
legislation in the two countries, and by showing that the first of
the alternative conditions prescribed by the act of Congress merely
required the ascertainment of the fact that citizens of the United
States stand in the foreign state on substantially the same footing
in regard to the privileges of copyright registration as the
citizens or subjects of such state. This being determined to the
President’s satisfaction, his proclamation issues, giving to the
citizen or subject of such foreign state the same privileges of
copyright in the United States as are enjoyed by citizens of the
United States.
The arrangement provided by the act of March 3, 1891, having been
found to work satisfactorily with the several states above
scheduled, it seems desirable to extend its beneficent operation to
embrace, as far as may be possible, the remaining countries which
have not yet come to an understanding with the United States in this
regard.
You are therefore directed to bring anew the provisions of the act of
March 3, 1891, to the attention of the Government to which you are
accredited and invite a fresh consideration of the offer of the
United States.
To enable you to explain the matter fully to his excellency the
minister of foreign affairs, I inclose for your convenient use a
copy of the act of March 3, 1891,a and a copy of each of the subsequent acts of
March 2, 1895,a and
January 6, 1897;a the
full text of title 60, chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes, as
amended and supplemented by these three acts,b thus showing the existing
legislation of the United States in regard to copyrights; a report
made to the President by the Third Assistant Secretary of State June
27, 1891,a showing
the intendment and scope of the offered arrangement, and the text of
the President’s proclamation of July 1, 1891,a whereby the general form of
promulgation will be seen.
[Page 970]
In executing this instrument you will express the hope that the
Government to which you are accredited will give the proposal that
early and, if possible, favorable consideration which is due to the
friendly spirit which prompts it, and to the benefits which may
naturally be expected to spring from the mutual enjoyment of the
privileges of copyright by the citizens and subjects of either
country in the territory of the other.
I am, sir, etc.,