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A. D. 1739. 12 George II. Chapter 36, Sections I, II, III. An act for prohibiting the importation of books reprinted abroad, and first composed or written, and printed in Great Britain; and for repealing so much of an act made in the eighth year of the reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, as empowers the limiting the prices of books. "Whereas the duties payable upon paper imported into this Kingdom, to be made use of in printing, greatly exceed the duties payable upon the importation of printed books, whereby foreigners and other are encouraged to bring in great numbers of books originally printed and published in this Kingdom and reprinted abroad, to the diminution of His Majesty's revenue, and the dis couragement of the trade and manufacture of this Kingdom;" for the preventing thereof for the future, may it please your most Excellent Majesty that it may be enacted; and

Be it enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the 29th day of September, 1739, it shall not be lawful for any person of persons whatsoever to import or bring into this Kingdom for sale any book or books first composed or written, and printed and published in this Kingdom. and reprinted in any other place or country whatsoever; and if any person or persons shall import or bring into this Kingdom for sale any printed book or books, so first composed or written, and printed in this Kingdom, and reprinted in any other place or country as aforesaid; or knowing the same to be so reprinted or imported, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, shall sell, publish or expose to sale any such book or books; then every such person or persons so doing or offending shall forfeit the said book or books, and all and every sheet or sheets thereof; and the same shall be forthwith damasked and made waste paper; and further, that every such offender or offenders shall forfeit the sum of £5 and double the value of every book which he or they shall so import or bring into this Kingdom, or shall knowingly sell, publish or expose to sale, or cause to be sold, published or exposed to sale, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act; the one moiety thereof to the King's most Excellent Majesty, his heirs and successors, and the other moiety to any person or persons that shall sue for the same; to be recovered with costs of suit in any of His Majesty's courts of record at Westminster by action of debt, bill, plaint or information; in which no wager of law, essoin, or protection, or more than one imparlance shall be allowed; and if the offense be committed in Scotland, to be recovered before the court of session there. by summary action: Provided, That this act shall not extend to any book that has not been printed or reprinted in this Kingdom within twenty years before the same shall be imported.

II. Provided always, That nothing in this act contained shall extend to prevent or hinder the importation of any book first composed or written and printed in this Kingdom, which shall or may be reprinted abroad and inserted among other books or tracts, and to be sold therewith, in any collection where the greatest part of such collection shall have been first composed or written and printed abroad; anything in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding, III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That so much of an act made in the eighth year of the reign of Her Late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by vesting the copies of printed books in the authors or purchasers of such copies, during the times therein mentioned," whereby it is provided and enacted that if any bookseller or booksellers, printer or printers shall, after the said five and twentieth day of March, 1710, set a price upon, or sell, or expose to sale any book or books, at such a price or rate as shall be conceived by any person or persons to be high and unreasonable, it shall and may be lawful for any person or persons to make complaint thereof to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being, the lord chancellor, or lord keeper of the great seal of Great Britain for the time being, etc., or any one or more of them, so inquiring and examining, have hereby full power and authority to reform and redress the same, and to limit and settle the price of every such printed book and books, from time to time, according to the best of their judgments, and as to them shall seem just and reasonable; and in case of alteration of the rate of price from what was set or demanded by such bookseller or booksellers, printer or printers, to award and order such bookseller or booksellers, printer or printers, to pay all the costs and charges that the person or persons so complaining shall be put unto by reason of such complaint, etc.; and if any bookseller or booksellers, printer or printers, shall, after such settlement made of the said rates

and price, sell, or expose to sale, any book or books at a higher or greater price than what shall have been so limited and settled as aforesaid, then and in every such case, such bookseller and booksellers, printer and printers, shall forfeit the sum of £5 for every such book so by him, her, or them sold or exposed to sale, one moiety thereof to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, her heirs and successors, and the other moiety to any person or persons that shall sue for the same, to be recovered, with costs of suit, in any of Her Majesty's courts of record at Westminster, by action of debt, bill, plaint, or information, in which no wager of law, essoin, privilege, or protection, or more than one imparlance shall be allowed; and every part of the said clause shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed.--Statutes at Large Volume VI, London, 1764.

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A. D. 1710. 8 Anne, c. 19. An act for the encouragement of learning, by vesting the copies of printed books in the authors or purchasers of such copies, during the times therein mentioned.

"Whereas printers, booksellers, and other persons have of late frequently taken the liberty of printing, reprinting, and publishing, or causing to be printed, reprinted, and published, books and other writings without the consent of the authors or proprietors of such books and writings to their very great detriment and too often to the ruin of them and their families:" For preventing therefore, such practices for the future and for the encouragement of learned men to compose and write useful books, may it please Your Majesty that it may be enacted; and

Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the 10th day of April, 1710, the author of any book or books already printed who hath not transferred to any other the copy or copies of such book or books, share or shares thereof, or the bookseller or booksellers, printer or printers, or other person or persons who hath or have purchased or acquired the copy or copies of any book or books in order to print or reprint the same, shall have the sole right and liberty of printing such book and books for the term of one and twenty years, to commence from the said 10th day of April, and no longer; and that the author of any book or books already composed and not printed and published or that shall hereafter be composed, and his assignee or assigns, shall have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such book and books for the term of fourteen years, to commence from the day of the first publishing the same and no longer; and that if any other bookseller, printer, or other person whatsoever, from and after the 10th day of April, 1710, within the times granted and limited by this act as aforesaid, shall print, reprint, or import, or caused to be printed, reprinted, or imported, any such book or books without the consent of the proprietor or proprietors thereof first Lad and obtained in writing, signed in the presence of two or more credible witnesses; or, knowing the same to be so printed or reprinted without the consent of the proprietors, shall sell, publish, or expose to sale, or cause to be sold, published, or exposed to sale any such book or books without such consent first had and obtained as aforesaid; then such offender or offenders shall forfeit such book or books, etc. [Marginal notes in Curtis.]

After March 25 the Archbishop of Canterbury, etc., to settle the prices of books, upon complaint made that they are unreasonable.

VII. Provided, That nothing in this act contained do extend or shall be construed to extend to prohibit the importation, vending, or selling of any books in Greek, Latin, or any other foreign language printed beyond the seas; anything in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding.-Curtis Copyright. Boston, 1897. Appendix.

A. D. 1842. Copyright act of 1842.

[Sections relating to importation.]

SEC. 15. XV. If any person shall, in any part of the British dominions, print or cause to be printed, either for sale or exportation, any book in which there shall be subsisting copyright, without the consent in writing of the proprietor thereof, or shall import for sale or hire any such book so having been unlawfully printed from parts beyond the sea, or, knowing such book to have been so unlawfully printed or imported, shall sell, publish, or expose to sale or hire, or cause to be sold, published, or exposed to sale or hire, or shall have in his

possession, for sale or hire, any such book so unlawfully printed or imported. without such consent as aforesaid, such offender shall be liable to a special action on the case at the suit of the proprietor of such copyright, to be brought in any court of record in that part of the British dominions in which the offense shall be committed: Provided always, That in Scotland such offender shall be liable to an action in the court of sessions in Scotland, which shall and may be brought and prosecuted in the same manner in which any other action of danrages to the like amount may be brought and prosecuted there.

SEC. 17. XVII. It shall not be lawful for any person, not being the proprietor of the copyright, or some person authorized by him, to import into any part of the United Kingdom, or into any other part of the British dominions, for sale or hire, any printed book first composed, or written, or printed and published in any part of the said United Kingdom, wherein there shall be copyright, and reprinted in any country or place whatsoever out of the British dominions; and if any person, not being such proprietor or person authorized as aforesaid, shall import or bring, or cause to be imported or brought, for sale or hire, any such printed book, into any part of the British dominions, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, or shall knowingly sell, publish, or expose to sale or let to hire, or have in his possession for sale or hire, any such book. then every such book shall be forfeited, and shall be seized by any officer of customs or excise, and the same shall be destroyed by such officer, and every person so offending, being duly convicted thereof before two justices of the peace for the county or place in which such book shall be found, shall also for every such offense forfeit the sum of ten pounds, and double the value of every copy of such book which he shall so import or cause to be imported into any part of the British dominions, or shall knowingly sell, publish, or expose to sale or let to hire, or shall cause to be sold, published, or exposed to sale or let to hire, or shall have in his possession for sale or hire, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, five pounds to the use of such officer of customs or excise, and the remainder of the penalty to the use of the proprietor of the copyright in such book.

A. D. 1844. Copyright act of 1844.

[Sections relating to importation.]

SEC. 3. III. And be it enacted, That in case any such order shall apply to books, all and singular the enactments of the said "Copyright amendment act," and of any other act for the time being in force with relation to the copyright in books first published in this country, shall, from and after the time so to be specified in that behalf in such order, and subject to such limitation as to the duration of the copyright as shall be therein contained, apply to and be in force in respect of the books to which such order shall extend, and which shall have been registered as hereinafter is provided, in such and the same manner as if such books were first published in the United Kingdom, save and except such of the enactments, or such parts thereof, as shall be excepted in such order, and save and except such of the said enactments as relate to the delivery of copies of books at the British Museum, and to or for the use of the other libraries mentioned in the said " Copyright amendment act."

SEC. 10. X. And be it enacted, That all copies of books wherein there shall be any subsisting copyright under or by virtue of this act, or of any order in council made in pursuance thereof, printed or reprinted in any foreign country except that in which such books were first published, shall be, and the same are hereby, absolutely prohibited to be imported into any part of the British dominions, except by or with the consent of the registered proprietor of the copyright thereof, or his agent authorized in writing, and if imported contrary to this prohibition the same and the importers thereof shall be subject to the enactments in force relating to goods prohibited to be imported by any act relating to the customs; and as respects any such copies so prohibited to be imported, and also as respects any copies unlawfully printed in any place whatsoever of any books wherein there shall be any such subsisting copyright as aforesaid, any person who shall in any part of the British dominions import such prohibited or unlawfully printed copies, or who, knowing such copies to be so unlawfully imported or unlawfully printed, shall sell, publish, or expose to sale or hire, or shall cause to be sold, published, or exposed to sale or hire, or have in his possession for sale or hire, any such copies so unlawfully imported or unlawfully printed, such offender shall be liable to a special action on the case at the suit of the proprietor of such copyright, to be brought and prosecuted

in the same courts and in the same manner, and with the like restrictions upon the proceedings of the defendant, as are respectively prescribed in the said Copyright amendment act" with relation to actions thereby authorized to be brought by proprietors of copyright against persons importing or selling books unlawfully printed in the British dominions.

A. D. 1847. Copyright act of 1847. The colonial copyright act, 1847, called "The foreign reprints act."

This law was passed to enable the colonies to reprint English copyright books upon the payment of a royalty.

The law offset the provisions of the colonial laws as follows: "Any prohibitions contained in the said acts or in any other acts 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 so far as regards such colony."

A. D. 1852. Copyright act of 1852.

[Sections relating to importation.]

SEC. 9. IX. All copies of any works of literature or art wherein there is any subsisting copyright by virtue of the international copyright act and this act, or of any order in council made in pursuance of such acts or either of them, and which are printed, reprinted, or made in any foreign country except that in which such work shall be first published, and all unauthorized translations of any book or dramatic piece, the publication or public representation in the British dominions of translations whereof, not authorized as in this act mentioned, shall for the time being be prevented under any order in council made in pursuance of this act, are hereby absolutely prohibited to be imported into any part of the British dominions, except by or with the consent of the registered proprietor of the copyright of such work or of such book or piece, or his agent authorized in writing; and the provisions of the act of the sixth year of Her Majesty "to amend the law of copyright," for the forfeiture, seizure, and destruction of any printed book first published in the United Kingdom wherein there shall be copyright, and reprinted in any country out of the British dominions and imported into any part of the British dominions by any person not being the proprietor of the copyright, or a person authorized by such proprietor, shall extend and be applicable to all copies of any works of literature and art, and to all translations the importation whereof into any part of the British dominions is prohibited under this act.

SEC. 10. X. The provisions hereinbefore contained shall be incorporated with the international copyright act, and shall be read and construed therewith as one act.

IV. EXTRACTS FROM CONTINENTAL STATUTES AND FROM COM

MENTATORS.

[Scrutton, T. E. "The Law of Copyright" (4th ed.), London, 1903.]

[CHAPTER I.-History of the English law of copyright.]

EARLY DAYS OF PRINTING.

[Pages 5-6.] Until means existed for rapid multiplication of copies of literary works the right of making copies was not of much pecuniary value. Such multiplication first became possible on the invention of printing, introduced into England by Caxton in 1474, or, according to a very doubtful story, at the King's expense by Corsellis, at Oxford, in 1468. Some time naturally elapsed before the art took sufficient root in England for questions of piratical printing to arise. At first, indeed, the demand for the new printing outran the supply, and an act of 1485 allowed the importation of printed books from abroad. This freedom of trade continued till 1534, when apparently the printers and binders were strong enough to obtain protection by an act prohibiting the importation of books, while protecting the interests of the public in the way then considered right by making provisions for fixing the price of books printed at home.

a1 Rich. III, ch. 9, sec. 12.

25 Hen. VIII, ch. 15.

a

[Page 34.] First, however, in 1735, an act was passed forbidding the importation of foreign reprints of English works, unless such works had not been printed or reprinted in England for twenty-one years previously, a restriction imposed in the interests of the public. The clause of the act of Anne for fixing the price of books was also repealed, a recognition that "regulation" is not always "consistent with the life and growth of all arts and mysteries."

Drone, Eaton S. A Treatise on the Law of Property in Intellectual Productions in Great Britain and the United States. Boston, 1879. Chapter X, pp. 472-473.

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Penalties against unlawful importing.-Section 17 prohibits the unauthorized importation, into any part of the British dominions, of any copyrighted book first published in the United Kingdom and reprinted in a foreign country; and declares that every such book which shall be so imported for sale or hire, or shall be sold, published, or exposed to sale, or let to hire, by any person knowing it to have been so imported, shall be forfeited, and shall be seized by any officer of customs or excise, and the same shall be destroyed by such officer." It further provides that the offender, being duly convicted, shall forfeit 10 pounds for every offense, and double the value of every copy which he has unlawfully imported, published, sold, or exposed to sale; five pounds to the use of such officer of customs or excise, and the remainder of the penalty to the use of the proprietor of the copyright."

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Under a similar provision in 12 George II, chapter 36, it was held that two penalties might be incurred on the same day, for two distinct sales.

a 12 Geo. II, ch. 36.

See Ordinance of 1652, p. 22.

Brooke v. Milliken (3 T. R., 509). I shall not attempt to explain the provisions of a statute which in one part (sec. 23) provides that copies of a book piratically imported shall become the property of the owner of the copyright, and in another (sec. 17) declares that such copies shall be seized and destroyed by any officer of customs or excise; which in one part (sec. 23) enacts that the wrongdoer shall be liable to the owner of the copyright for the value of every unlawfully imported copy which he has sold, and in another (sec. 17) says that he shall forfeit double the value of every such copy sold. The highly penal provision of section 17 not only cause confusion and uncertainty as to the meaning of the law, but they are unnecessary and out of place in a statute which otherwise amply provides for the protection of literary property against the importation of pirated copies.

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I can not regard the copying of this provision in the 5 and 6 Vict., ch. 45, otherwise than as an instance of the looseness with which statutes are too often drawn. This provision was originally enacted in 1739, and was designed not for the prevention or redress of piracy, but simply to increase the revennes and protect the industrial interests of the Kingdom. This is manifest from the preamble of the statute, 12 Geo. II, ch. 36, which recites that "the duties payable upon paper imported into this Kingdom, to be made use of in printing, greatly exceed the duties payable upon the importation of printed books, whereby foreigners and others are encouraged to bring in great numbers of books originally printed and published in this Kingdom and reprinted abroad, to the diminution of His Majesty's revenue, and the discouragement of the trade and manufacture of this Kingdom." The prevention thereof for the future" was the avowed object of the act. It was to continue in force only for seven years, and was renewed for short periods by several other acts, which had no reference to literary property, 20 Geo. II, ch. 47; 27 Geo. II, ch. 18; 33 Geo. II, ch. 16. The provision was inserted, for what reason is not apparent, in the copyright act, 41 Geo. III, ch. 197, sec. 7, passed in 1801; from which, doubtless because it was found in that act, it was copied in the existing statute of Victoria. While books piratically imported were by this provision made subject to forfeiture and to be destroyed by the customs officer, they were also by the copyright statutes in force before the 5 and 6 Vict., ch. 45— viz, 8 Anne, ch. 19, sec. 1; 41 Geo. III, ch. 107, sec. 1; and 56 Geo. III, ch. 156, sec. 4-required to be forfeited to the owner of the copyright, to be by him destroyed. In either case, therefore, they were subject to destruction.

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