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PART I.

right the Act extended the term of enjoyment to that lastCHAPTER VI. mentioned, except where it belonged to an assignee for other consideration than that of natural love and affection.

Musical compositions.

Sect. 5 empowers the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to license the publication of books which the proprietor refuses to republish after the death of the author. Provision is next made for the delivery of copies of books to certain libraries, and a penalty is imposed for default in delivering them. (a) The mode of registering books at Stationers' Hall, and the consequences of a false entry are determined. (b) The remedy for piracy provided by sect. 15 is an action on the case to be brought in any court of record in that part of the British dominions in which the offence shall be committed; and sect. 16 deals with the form of the defendant's plea in such an action. The provision in 41 Geo. 3, c. 107, as to the importation of books first composed, &c., here, and re-printed elsewhere, is re-enacted.

Sect. 18 deals with the question of copyright in productions appearing in encyclopædias, periodicals, and works published in a series, reviews, or magazines.

Sect. 19 enables the proprietors of encyclopædias, periodicals, and serials to enter at once the title at Stationers' Hall, and thereupon to have the benefit of the registration of the whole.

The provisions of 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 15, relating to dramatic literary property, are extended to musical compositions, and the extended term of duration of copyright in books provided by the present Act is applied also to the liberty of representing dramatic pieces and musical compositions, the first public representation or performance of any dramatic piece or musical composition being deemed equivalent, in the construction of the Act, to the first publication of any book. (c) All the remedies provided by 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 15, are given to the proprietors of the right of dramatic or musical representation; and it is provided that the right of representation shall not be conveyed by the assignment of the copyright. (d)

Books pirated are to become the property of the proprietor of the copyright, who, after demand thereof in writing, may recover the same or damages for their detention in an action of detinue, or sue for and recover damages for their conversion in an action of trover. (e) But no proprietor of copyright commencing after the Act shall sue or proceed for any in

(a) Sects. 6-10.
(b) Sects. 11-14.
(c) Sect. 20.

(d) Sects. 21, 22.
positions," post.

See the chapter on "Copyright in Books," post.

See the chapter on "Dramatic and Musical Com(e) Sect. 23.

fringement before making entry in the book of registry of the Stationers' Company. (a)

The Act further contains clauses as to the mode of pleading and giving evidence on the trial of an action, and limiting the time for instituting proceedings for offences against the Act to twelve months from the commission of the offence, and saving the rights of the Universities and of the Colleges of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester, and all their subsisting rights, contracts, and engagements. (b)

PART I. CHAPTER VI.

Amendments of

The Act 7 Vict. c. 12, was passed to amend the law rela- 7 Vict. c. 12, ting to International Copyright. It repeals the International International Copyright Act of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 59, and enables Her Majesty, Copyright. by Order in Council, to confer more extended privileges on authors of books, prints, articles of sculpture, and other works of art, first published in foreign countries, by giving them a copyright of not greater duration than that enjoyed in works of a similar character first published in the United Kingdom. It also enables Her Majesty to direct that authors and composers of dramatic pieces first publicly represented and performed in foreign countries, shall have similar rights in the British dominions. Sect. 6 enumerates particulars as to registry and delivery of copies, which must be observed with respect to all the foregoing. Sect. 10 prohibits the importation of copies of books wherein copyright is subsisting under the Act, printed in foreign countries other than those wherein the book was first published. Translations are excluded from the operation of the Act.(c) And by sect. 19 the authors of works (books, dramas, prints, or articles of sculpture) published in foreign countries, are not to be entitled to any copyright, or exclusive right of representation or performance, otherwise than under this Act.

Colonial

Other clauses deal with the deposit of books, &c., and with the publication of Orders in Council, none of which is to have any effect unless it states that protection similar to that given by the Order in Council has been secured by the foreign power to which it is so given, to the proprietors of works first published in the dominions of Her Majesty.(d) The law relating to the protection in the colonies of books 10% 11 Vict. c. 95. entitled to copyright in the United Kingdom, was amended Copyright. by 10 & 11 Vict. c. 95, which provides that where the proper legislative authorities in any British possession shall pass an Act or make an ordinance containing due provision for securing or protecting the rights of British authors in such possession, and shall submit such Act or ordinance to Her Majesty, Her Majesty, if she think such Act or ordinance sufficient for the purpose of securing to British authors (a) Sect. 24. (b) Sects. 26-28. (c) Sect. 18. (d) Sects. 11-17.

PART I.

reasonable protection within such possession, may issue an CHAPTER VI. Order in Council declaring that so long as such Act or ordinance continues in force within such colony, the prohibitions contained in any Acts of Parliament against the importing, selling, letting out to hire, exposing for sale or hire, or possessing foreign reprints of books first composed, written, printed, or published in the United Kingdom, and entitled to copyright therein, shall be suspended as far as regards such colony. (a)

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The last statutory enactment on the subject of international copyright is 15 & 16 Vict. c. 12, which extends and explains the previous Acts, besides enabling Her Majesty to carry into effect a convention with France on the subject. Under this Act the Queen may, by Order in Council, direct that the authors of books published after a specified day in any foreign country, their executors, administrators, or assigns, shall be empowered (subject to the provisions contained in the Act) to prevent the publication in the British dominions of any translations of such books not authorised by them for a period, to be specified in the Order of Council, not exceeding five years from the first publication of an authorised translation, and in the case of books published in parts, for a period not exceeding, as to each part, five years from the first publication of an authorised translation of that part. On such order being made the provisions in the laws which protect British copyright are to be applied to prevent the publication of unauthorised translations.

Similar provisions are made to prevent unauthorised translations for the same length of time of dramatic works first publicly represented in any foreign country.

Fair imitations and adaptations to the English stage of dramatic pieces are excepted from the operation of the statute; also all articles of a political nature, in foreign newspapers or periodicals, and similar articles on other subjects where the author has not notified his intention to reserve the right.(b)

The requisites which foreign authors must comply with in order to entitle themselves to the benefits of this act are specified, and provisions are inserted to prevent the importation of pirated copies. (c)

Lastly, the Act clears up a previously existing doubt as to prints taken by lithography, by applying to them the provisions contained in the different statutes relating to other prints and engravings. (d)

(a) See the chapter on "Colonial Copyright," post. (b) Sect. 7.
(c) Sects. 9, 10. See the chapter on "International Copyright," post.
(d) Sect. 14.

In

PART I. CHAPTER VI.

The legislature came in the last place to the aid of authors of paintings, drawings, and photographs. 1858 Lord Lyndhurst presented a petition to the House of Lords from the Society of Arts, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and a number of sculptors, painters, photographers, and others, asking for an extension of the law of copyright to works of fine art. A committee was appointed and a report presented, and a Bill was introduced to give effect to the report. A dissolution of Parliament, however, delayed the matter for a while, but in 1862 the Act 25 & 26 Vict. c. 68, was passed to accomplish the prayer of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 68. the petition. Previously to that statute the authors of intings, paintings, drawings, and photographs had no copyright in photographs. their works. (a) The statute confers on the author of every original painting, drawing, and photograph, and his assigns, the sole and exclusive right of copying, engraving, reproducing, and multiplying it and the design thereof for the term of the natural life of the author, and seven years after his death. Provisions are contained in the Act as to registry and assignment, and to prohibit the importation of pirated works; and for infringement of the copyright conferred by the Act, a penalty is imposed of 107. for each offence, besides a forfeiture of all copies.

The foregoing is but a rapid summary of the legislative enactments on the subject of copyright, in their chronological order. The chief provisions of the various Acts will be considered in detail when treating in succeeding chapters of the different subjects in which copyright exists.

drawings, and

CHAPTER VII.

COPYRIGHT IN BOOKS.

THE Act of 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, s. 2, defines "copyright " to Definition of mean the sole and exclusive liberty of printing or otherwise copyright, multiplying (b) copies of any subject to which the said word is in the Act applied.

.book.

The same section provides that the word "book" shall Meaning of be construed to mean and include every volume, part or (a) See the preamble to this statute.

(b) This gives a wider meaning to the term than that given by the Statute of Anne, which was "the sole right and liberty of printing," and thus protects literary works from unauthorised publication by other means than the press: (see per Talfourd, J., Novello v. Sudlow (12 C. B. 189; 16 Jur. 671).

PART L.

division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letter-press,(a) sheet CHAPTER VII. of music, map, chart, or plan separately published. (b)

Duration of copyright.

Copyright in

before the Act.

A newspaper is not, according to Malins, V.C., (e) a book within this section, and does not require to be registered under sect. 13, in order to entitle the proprietor to restrain the piracy of it.

With respect to the duration of copyright in books, sect. 3 enacts "that the copyright in every book which shall after the passing of this Act be published in the lifetime of its author shall endure for the natural life of such author, and for the further term of seven years, commencing at the time of his death, and shall be the property of such author and his assigns: provided always, that if the said term of seven years shall expire before the end of forty-two years from the first publication of such book, the copyright shall in that case endure for such period of forty-two years; and that the copyright in every book which shall be published after the death of its author shall endure for the term of fortytwo years from the first publication thereof, and shall be the property of the proprietor of the author's manuscript from which such book shall be first published, and his assigns."

In the case of books published before the passing of the books published Act (1st July, 1842), and in which copyright then subsisted, sect. 4 enacts, "that the copyright which at the time of passing this Act shall subsist in any book theretofore published (except as hereinafter mentioned) shall be extended and endure for the full term provided by this Act in cases of books thereafter published, and shall be the property of the person who at the time of passing of this Act. shall be the proprietor of such copyright: Provided always, that in all cases in which such copyright shall belong in whole or in part to a publisher or other person who shall have acquired it for other consideration than that of natural love and affection, such copyright shall not be extended by this Act, but shall endure for the term which shall subsist therein at the time of passing of this Act, and no longer, unless the author of such book, if he shall be living, or the personal representative of such author, if he shall be dead, and the proprietor of such copyright shall, before the expiration of such term, consent and agree to accept the

(a) A label used in the sale of any article is said by an American Judge (M'Clean) not to be a book within the provisions of the Copyright Act: (Coffeen v. Brunton, 4 M'Clean, 516.)

(b) See Hime v. Dale (2 Camp. 27 n.); Clementi v. Goulding (2 Camp. 25); Back v. Longman (Cowp. 623).

(c) Cox v. Land and Water Journal Company (L. Rep. 9 Eq. 324; 21 L. T. N. S. 548.)

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