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Legislation under

William IV

The Victorian act of 1842

remains, the basis of copyright in drama. The lectures copyright act of 1835 (5 & 6 William IV, c. 65) for the first time covered that field. In 1836 the prints and engravings copyright (Ireland) act (6 & 7 William IV, c. 59) extended protection to those classes in that country, and another copyright act (6 & 7 William IV, c. 110) reduced the number of library copies required to five. These laws also remain in force, in unrepealed provisions, as a part of British copyright law.

In 1841, under the leadership of Serjeant Talfourd, author of "Ion" and other dramatic works, a new copyright bill was presented to the House of Commons, in the preparation of which George Palmer Putnam, the American publisher, then resident in London, had been consulted. It provided for compulsory registration and extended the term to life and thirty years. The bill attracted little attention and met with no opposition until the second reading, when Lord Macaulay, a bachelor, interested in fame rather than profit to an author or his descendants, attacked the bill and "the great debate" ensued. Macaulay offered a bill limiting copyright to the life of the author, but finally assented to a compromise, by which the term was made forty-two years or the life of the author and seven years, whichever the longer. The resulting copyright act of 1842 (5 & 6 Victoria, c. 45) presented a new code of copyright, covering the ground of previous laws, but not in terms repealing them. As a result, provisions not specifically repealed or superseded remained in force, and the act of 1842, though serving since as the basic act, has had to be construed with the previous acts in view. The bill practically preserved, however, the restrictions of the statute of Anne. The term of forty-two years or life and seven years is applied to articles in periodicals, but

the right in these reverts to the author after twentyeight years. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council may authorize the publication of a work which after the author's death the proprietor of the copyright refuses to republish.

In the same year, 1842, there was passed also a Protection copyright in designs act, covering designs for articles of designs of manufacture, consolidating previous laws on this specific subject from 1787 to 1839 (two bills in this last year having extended protection to printing designs for woolen and other fabrics and to articles of manufacture generally), and providing for a registrar for such designs,— in which act the careless use of the word "ornamenting" seemed so to limit the scope that an amendatory act was passed in 1843.

An international copyright act, introduced in the Subsequent first year of the Victorian reign, had been passed in acts 1838, to protect foreign books reprinted in England, but it proved inadequate and was repealed by the subsequent act of 1844 (7 & 8 Victoria, c. 12), providing more comprehensively for international copyright, on the basis of registration and deposit in London. The colonial copyright act of 1847 (10 & 11 Victoria, c. 95) authorized copyright legislation by any colony, subject to the approval of the Crown, and the suspension for such colony of the prohibition of foreign reprints, which act is therefore often cited as the foreign reprints act. An act of 1850 further covered designs and provided for their provisional registration, and one in 1851 protected exhibits at the international exhibition of that year in London. A third international copyright act was passed in 1852 (15 & 16 Victoria, c. 12) covering translations and including an authorization of a special treaty with France. The fine arts copyright act of 1862 (25 & 26 Victoria, c. 68) extended copyright to paintings, drawings, and

report of 1878

photographs, hitherto unprotected, for life and seven years. A fourth international copyright act of 1875 (38 & 39 Victoria, c. 12) protected foreign dramatic works from imitation or adaptation on the English stage, which had been specifically permitted by the previous law, and in the same year "The Canada copyright act" (38 & 39 Victoria, c. 53) gave effect to a Canadian parliament act respecting copyright reprints. The Royal "The law of England, as to copyright," says Commission the report of the Royal Copyright Commission, in a blue-book of 1878, "consists partly of the provisions of fourteen Acts of Parliament, which relate in whole or in part to different branches of the subject, and partly of common law principles, nowhere stated in any definite or authoritative way, but implied in a considerable number of reported cases scattered over the law reports." The digest, by Sir James Stephen, appended to this report, is presented by the Commission as "a correct statement of the law as it stands." This digest is one of the most valuable contributions to the literature of copyright, but the frequency with which such phrases occur as "it is probable, but not certain," "it is uncertain," "probably," "it seems,' shows the state of the law, "wholly destitute of any sort of arrangement, incomplete, often obscure,” as says the report itself. The digest is accompanied, in parallel columns, with alterations suggested by the Commission, and it is much to be regretted that their work failed to reach the expected result of an act of Parliament. The evidence taken by the Commission forms a second blue-book, also of great value.

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This report and digest covered legislation through 1875, inclusive of the Canada act. They seem also to have regarded, though the act is not specified in the schedule, the consolidated customs act of 1876 (39 & 40 Victoria, c. 36), which incidentally contained the

provisions for the prohibition of the importation of copyright books.

Despite the recommendations of the Commission Later and several later endeavors to pass a comprehensive legislation copyright act, of which the most important was Lord Monkswell's bill introduced into Parliament on behalf of the British Society of Authors, November 16, 1890, and given in full with an analysis by Walter Besant in George Haven Putnam's "Question of copyright"— later legislation in England has been confined practically to two topics, international copyright and the vexed question of musical compositions.

The international copyright act of 1886 (49 & 50 International Victoria, c. 43), amending and extending, and in part copyright repealing the earlier international copyright acts and provisions, was intended to enable Great Britain, through Orders in Council, to become a party to international agreements, particularly the Berne copyright convention of 1886, ratified in 1887; this was made effective with respect to the eight other countries which were parties to the original Berne convention by the Order in Council of November 28, 1887, taking effect December 6, 1887. The convention was to extend to the British possessions, though with exceptions in some respects. The revenue act of 1889 (52 & 53 Victoria, c. 42) extended the prohibition of importation to foreign works copyrighted under the act of 1886, "printed or reprinted in any country or state" other than that "in which they were first published," if registered as required by the customs authorities.

The protection of musical compositions was in such Musical confused and unsatisfactory condition that special copyright legislation was necessary. The recent laws on this subject, described in detail in the chapter on dramatic and musical copyright, include the copyright (mu

Committee report of 1909

Imperial copyright conference

of 1909

The pending bill

sical compositions) act of 1882 (45 & 46 Victoria, c. 40); the copyright (musical compositions) act of 1888 (51 & 52 Victoria, c. 17); the musical (summary proceedings) copyright act of 1902 (2 Edward VII, c. 15); and the musical copyright act of 1906 (6 Edward VII, c. 36), following the report of the Musical Copyright Committee of 1904, which successively met imperfections developed in applying the previous law.

After the adoption of the revised international copyright convention signed at Berlin November 13, 1908, modifying the Berne-Paris conventions, a Committee on the law of copyright consisting of seventeen publicists, authors, artists, publishers and others was appointed by minute of March 9, 1909, by the President of the Board of Trade, to consider and report upon the modification of domestic legislation in conformity with the Berlin agreement of 1908. The Committee made a report in December, 1909, strongly advising that domestic legislation be brought into line with international practice and that the copyright term in Great Britain be for life and fifty years. With the report was printed a blue-book of minutes of evidence, containing valuable appendixes which included a projêt de loi type (model bill) on copyright, drafted by the International Literary and Artistic Association, and an artistic copyright bill drafted by the Artistic Copyright Society.

In the early part of 1909 an Imperial copyright conference was also held in London, attended by Crown officials and representatives from all of the self-governing dominions, at which certain resolutions for copyright betterment were adopted. Its minutes and resolutions were also presented to Parliament.

As a result of the deliberations and reports of these two bodies, "a bill to amend and consolidate the law relating to copyright" (1 George V) was introduced

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