Slashdot

“The NYTimes reported in their June 13, 1897 edition that ‘Canadian pirates’ were flooding the country
with spurious editions of the latest copyrighted popular songs. ‘They
use the mails to reach purchasers, so members of the American Music
Publishers Association assert, and as a result the legitimate music
publishing business of the United States has fallen off 50 per cent in
the past twelve months’ while the pirates published 5,000,000 copies of
songs in just one month. The Times added that pirates were publishing
sheet music at 2 cents to 5 cents per copy although the original
compositions sold for 20 to 40 cents per copy. But ‘American publishers
had held a conference’ and a ‘committee had been appointed to fight the
pirates’ by getting the ‘Post Office authorities to stop such mail
matter because it infringes the copyright law.’ Interestingly enough
the pirates of 1897 worked in league with Canadian newspapers that
published lists of songs to be sold, with a post office box address
belonging to the newspaper itself. Half the money went to pay the
newspapers’ advertising while the other half went to the pirates who
sent the music by mail.”“The NYTimes reported in their June 13, 1897 edition that ‘Canadian pirates’ were flooding the country with spurious editions of the latest copyrighted popular songs. ‘They use the mails to reach purchasers, so members of the American Music Publishers Association assert, and as a result the legitimate music publishing business of the United States has fallen off 50 per cent in the past twelve months’ while the pirates published 5,000,000 copies of songs in just one month. The Times added that pirates were publishing sheet music at 2 cents to 5 cents per copy although the original compositions sold for 20 to 40 cents per copy. But ‘American publishers had held a conference’ and a ‘committee had been appointed to fight the pirates’ by getting the ‘Post Office authorities to stop such mail matter because it infringes the copyright law.’ Interestingly enough the pirates of 1897 worked in league with Canadian newspapers that published lists of songs to be sold, with a post office box address belonging to the newspaper itself. Half the money went to pay the newspapers’ advertising while the other half went to the pirates who sent the music by mail.”