Article III: On the Dominion of Authors and Inventors

191. Notions. - Under the name of author comes everyone who by his own genius discovers something: of this kind is he who has written a book, who has composed a work of art, a musical rhythm, a painting, who has made an invention by which the industrial arts are advanced. Concerning him it is asked whether and how far he has dominion over his works or inventions.

192. Principles. - I. Each one has full dominion in the thing and fruits of his own genius, as long as he has not made them public, because he acquired them by his own labor; whence:

1. He who steals and publishes the manuscripts or inventions of another without the author's permission sins against justice and is bound to repair damages, because he injures the author's right in two ways, while he publishes his work against his will, and deprives him of the profit to be perceived from it.

2. Similarly, he injures justice and is bound to restitution who takes down in writing sermons or lectures which he has heard and makes them public and publishes them without the explicit or implicit permission of the preacher or professor, such as can be supposed from received custom, for example, for the reporting of sermons in newspapers.

3. Yet by the very fact that someone publicly teaches or preaches, the doctrine proposed becomes in some way public; therefore he cannot impede the hearers from making it their own, using it as occasion offers, or writing it down for their own private use and even lending the writing to others.

II. When the work has already been published or the invention made public, the author seems to preserve dominion and the right of receiving the fruits of the work.

For although some hold a published work as a common good, which can licitly be occupied by all, especially after the first edition or in a distant region or as to translations; nevertheless the author is judged to retain the right which from the nature of the thing he can retain, as it is equitable that he not be deprived of the fruit of his labor: by publishing he indeed concedes use to all paying the price, and beyond this he intends to preserve his own right, namely, dominion of the work, the right of receiving fruits, and the right of further publishing.

III. How far the author's right extends in place and time cannot be determined from the nature of things alone, but only from the estimation of prudent persons, especially from the intervention of national and international legislation.

In reality, civil authority - as is beyond all doubt and controversy - can and at times must establish concerning the rights of authors, both for delimiting and protecting the diverse rights of citizens, and by reason of the common good, which is much assisted by works of the sciences and arts and by inventions of industry.

193. Positive law. - Among cultivated nations everywhere the right of authors and inventors has been determined more precisely by law. Thus, certain conditions being fulfilled, the right of writers endures during their whole life. Moreover, in Belgium, for example, it is reserved to the heirs for 50 years after the death of the writer, or if the work is posthumous; but if the author is anonymous, the publisher is reputed as such in relation to others (law of March 22, 1886). In France likewise for 50 years after the death of the author; in Spain for 80 years; likewise in the Netherlands for 50 years after the death of the author, or if it is anonymous, after the edition; but after 10 years translations can be made into other languages, except those into which the author has conceded translation; in America, for 28 years, but then it can be prolonged; in Italy for 40 years after the first edition, so that for another 40 years following there is owed 5% of the price inscribed on copies; in Switzerland for 30 years after the death of the writer, and in Germany now for 50 years; in England 7 years after death or 42 years after the first edition. Moreover, an international pact is in force, namely, the Bern Convention of Sept. 9, 1886, which was completed at Berlin on Nov. 13, 1908, and at Rome on June 2, 1928, by which it happens that authors enjoy the same right outside their fatherland among other nations.

For inventions, the monopoly of the inventor in Belgium endures for 20 years (law of May 24, 1854); in the Netherlands for 15 years; likewise in France it can endure for 15 years. And there are international conventions concerning this matter, made at Paris on March 20, 1883, at Brussels on Dec. 14, 1900, in Washington on June 2, 1911, and at The Hague on Nov. 6, 1925; and at Bern the International Office was instituted, March 20, 1914.