In the 1903 U.S. Supreme Court case Bessette v. W.B. Conkey Company, plaintiff Bessette sued defendant Conkey Company for copyright infringement of a book he had authored and copyrighted in Canada. The court ruled in favor of the defendant, stating that under U.S law at that time, foreign authors were not granted copyright protection unless their work was printed in the United States within thirty days after its publication abroad or if they were citizens or residents of a country providing reciprocal rights to American authors - neither condition applied to Bessette's situation. Therefore, his Canadian copyright did not protect him from unauthorized reproduction by an American publisher.

In the dissenting opinion for Bessette v. W.B. Conkey Company, Justice Brewer argued that the court's decision to uphold a lower court ruling in favor of W.B. Conkey Company was incorrect and unjustified by law or precedent. He contended that the majority had misinterpreted copyright laws, particularly regarding their application to foreign authors whose works were published abroad before being registered in America - as was the case with Emile Zola’s novel “Paris.” According to Justice Brewer, this interpretation violated international copyright agreements and unfairly penalized foreign authors who sought American copyrights after initial publication elsewhere. Furthermore, he asserted that such an interpretation could potentially harm U.S.-foreign relations by creating unnecessary conflicts over intellectual property rights.