The conference, sir, proceeded at its first session on a memorandum which formed the basis for discussion, presented by the American Copyright League; and I mention that to say that that memorandum included two important suggestions which were not incorporated in the bill--one the suggestion that the bill should be, as it were, a group of bills, representing separately and distinctively the literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic varieties of copyrightable property. An honest endeavor was made to do that, but it proved not practicable and workable. Again, members of our council, Mr. Stedman and Mr. Clemens among them, desired very much that the authors should be safeguarded in their relations with publishers by certain insertions in the bill. It was held by the legal authorities that that was not a proper subject of introduction in a copyright code; and on those two points the American Copyright League, I think I am authorized to state, recedes from any possible dissension. And I say it, sir, because there are doubtless many points on which the several organizations would prefer to have additions or omissions.
A little girl I knew spoke of a compromise as something where everybody got what they did not want. Now, in that sense this bill is not a compromise. It represents, rather, the consensus of opinion of the originators of copyrightable property, of the reproducers, publishers and similar interests, and of representatives, as Mr. Putnam has told you, of various other interests. On behalf of the league we believe, sir, that you have before you a working basis for a just, broad, clear, workable copyright bill; and we feel confident that such a bill will emerge from your deliberations.
We ask you, sir, to keep in mind two vital points: First, that the rights of the producing classes shall be first of all thought of, but not to the detriment of the great body of reproducers and readers, on whom the author classes depend for the possibility of realizing from their productions. As has been said to you, copyright is on a different basis from patents, in that it not only does not interfere with the rights or privileges of others as succeeding inventors, but that the world is the better for any original work contributed by help of the copyright laws to the community without detriment to anyone, and therefore it should have a broader scope before you in copyright legislation than in patent legislation; and we ask that in that view, in that spirit, the rights of the producing classes shall be kept in mind.