m another which is piracy, and the difficulty is to
draw the line between what is fair and what is unfair. Lord Eldon put
the question thus,--whether the second publication is a legitimate use
of the other in the fair exercise of a mental operation deserving the
character of an original work. Another test proposed is "whether you
find on the part of the defendant an _animus furandi_--an intention to
take for the purpose of saving himself labour." No one, it has been
said, has a right to take, whether with or without acknowledgment, a
material and substantial portion of another's work, his arguments, his
illustrations, his authorities, for the purpose of making or improving a
rival publication. When the materials are open to all, an author may
acquire copyright in his selection or arrangement of them. Several cases
have arisen on this point between the publishers of rival directories.
Here it has been held that the subsequent compiler is bound to do for
himself what the original compiler had done. When the materials are thus
_in medio_, as the phrase is, it is considered a fair test of piracy to
examine whether the mistakes of both works are the same. If they are,
piracy will be inferred. Translations stand to each other in the same
relation as books constructed of materials in common. The _animus
furandi_, mentioned above as a test of piracy, does not imply deliberate
intention to steal; it may be quite compatible with ignorance even of
the copyright work. Abridgments, moreover, of original works appear to
be favoured by the courts--when the act of abridgment is itself an act
of the understanding, "employed in carrying a large work into a smaller
compass, and rendering it less expensive." Lord Hatherley, however, in
_Tinsley_ v. _Lacy_, 1863, 1 H. & M. 747, incidentally expressed his
disapproval of this feeling--holding that the courts had gone far enough
in this direction, and that it was difficult to acquiesce in the reason
sometimes given that the compiler of an abridgment is a benefactor to
mankind by assisting in the diffusion of knowledge. A mere selection or
compilation, so as to bring the materials into smaller space, will not
be a bona fide abridgment; "there must be real substantial condensation,
and intellectual labour, and judgment bestowed thereon" (Justice Story).
A publication professing to be _A Christmas Ghost Story, Reoriginated
from the Original by Charles Dickens, Esq., and Analytically Condensed
expre