The Pirate Publisher

Before an international copyright law, an American publisher could reprint a foreign author without paying a cent, and Puck drew the practice as open piracy. At the center a swaggering buccaneer publisher plants himself on a heap of books, scattering printed sheets. To his left a crowd of foreign writers in national dress, British, French, German, Russian, shake fists and protest; to his right, fellow publishers snatch up the loose pages to reprint. The subtitle calls it "an international burlesque that has had the longest run on record." Keppler, himself a Viennese immigrant, had a personal stake in the fight for authors' rights. The theft of European work was so routine it had become a kind of long-running show, and everyone knew the script.