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Importation

Remedies

for the whole term of copyright or any part thereof, or license accordingly. But no assignment otherwise than by will shall be operative beyond twenty-five years from the death of the author, when the copyright reverts to his natural heirs, following Spanish precedent.

Registration provisions are altogether omitted from the new measure.

Deposit is required at the British Museum within one month after publication, "of every book published in the United Kingdom" on penalty of fine not exceeding five pounds and the value of the book, and copies must also be supplied to the four university libraries, and for specific classes to the National Library of Wales, on demand-the "best" edition in the case of the British Museum, and that of which most copies are sold in the other cases.

Importation of "copies made out of the United Kingdom... which if made within the United Kingdom would infringe copyright," is prohibited, on notification in writing to the Commissioners of Customs (the Isle of Man being specifically excepted from this provision), and similar prohibition is authorized as to British possessions. The use in the section on infringement of the phrase "imports for sale or hire," taken from the act of 1842, involves a possible limitation of this prohibition which is discussed in the chapter on importation.

The usual civil remedies are provided, actions being limited within three years from the infringement. If the real name of an author, or in the absence of such, the name of a publisher, is indicated on a work, that is prima facie evidence of copyright ownership in the prosecution of infringement. An infringer may be relieved from damages (but not from injunction) on. proving innocence; architectural infringements may

not be enjoined after commencement of the structure, but are punishable by damages. On summary conviction any person who knowingly for sale or hire or for trade makes, sells or lets, distributes, exhibits, or imports infringing copies, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding forty shillings for each copy or fifty pounds for the same transaction, or in the case of a second offense, to imprisonment not exceeding two months; and similar provision is made as to infringing performance. The summary remedies in the musical copyright acts of 1902 and 1906 remain unrepealed.

The provisions of the code are extended to cover General existing copyrights. Common law rights are specifi- relations cally abrogated by provision confining the protec

tion of an unpublished as well as a published work

to statutory provisions.

The measure repeals all existing enactments ex- Acts recept sections seven and eight (modified) of the fine pealed arts copyright act, 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c. 68), which deal with fraudulent signature or marketing of art works and concern fraud rather than copyright, and the musical copyright acts of 1902 and 1906, providing summary remedies for piracy of musical works; and the provisions regarding copyrights of the customs and revenue acts are continued with modifications conforming them to this act.

The act does not apply to designs capable of being registered under the patents and designs act, 1907. Schedules of existing and corresponding rights and of enactments repealed are appended to the bill. The act is effective July 1, 1912, unless earlier made effective by Order in Council.

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It may be noted that the new British measure had Changes been much modified, especially in the Committee from origistage, where efforts to reconcile conflicting interests

nal bill

Isle of Man

were chiefly effective, since its introduction as a Government measure in 1910. In the earlier form it was provided that the contributor of an article or contribution, periodical articles included, might retain a specific copyright except as against the proprietor of a collective work, and that an article in a newspaper, not being a tale or serial story, might be reproduced in another newspaper in default of a notice expressly forbidding it, providing the source were duly acknowledged. University copyrights, new as well as old, it was then proposed should still be perpetual. Copyright, it was specifically provided, should not pass from an artist when he sells his original work except by agreement in writing, but subsequent transfers of the original work from an owner also of the copyright, should transfer the copyright but this is probably taken as implied in the new law. Registration at Stationers' Hall was continued and made applicable to all classes of works, and though optional, it was practically necessitated by the ingenious provision that in the absence of such registration an infringer might plead ignorance and be freed from damages. The summary provisions of the musical copyright acts were extended to cover other works, and these acts it was therefore proposed to repeal. The compulsory license provision limiting musical copyright and certain provisions as to ownership and term were introduced in the Committee stage. The word "infringing" was substituted for "piratical" in Parliamentary debate to conciliate a supersensitive member. The compromises and modifications indicated brought the measure before Parliament as an "agreed upon" bill.

The Isle of Man applies the copyright law of the United Kingdom, and has a supplementary law of 1907, applying British legislation on engravings and

prints, sculpture, paintings, etc., and musical compositions, quite up to date, embodying in the latter section the latest provisions as to summary proceedings in the protection of music- this being enacted by "the Deemsters and Keys in Tynwald assembled," as the tiny Manx parliament is quaintly called. The Channel Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey also apply Islands British copyright law by ordinances or local legislation in their respective domains.

tions

Great Britain was one of the original parties to the InternaBerne convention and accepted the additional act, tional relabut not the interpretative declaration of Paris, and the passage of the new measure will permit adhesion to the Berlin convention. She has a special treaty with Austria-Hungary (1893), sometimes cited as the treaty of Vienna of 1893, and has been in reciprocal relation with the United States as a "proclaimed " country since July 1, 1891.

The British dominions outside of the United King- Colonial dom and Ireland are, in general, under the like provi- relations sions of Imperial copyright law, including the law of 1842 and earlier unrepealed or subsequent acts, the colonial copyright act of 1847 and the international copyright act of 1886 being especially important. They are also generally included under British international relations embracing the Berne-Paris provisions of the International Copyright Union and the reciprocal relations with the United States, but with the exception that in the Austria-Hungary treaty, Canada, New South Wales and Tasmania (both now part of the Australian Commonwealth), and Cape Colony (now part of the Union of South Africa) are not parties, because these colonies did not exercise the right of ratification specifically reserved to individual colonies.

The application of the Berne convention to the Judicial conBritish possessions was upheld in an important firmation

Local legislation

Canadian decision, when in 1906 Justice Fortin, in Mary v. Hubert, in the Quebec Court of King's Bench, held that the British international copyright act in relation with the Berne convention protected a French work from Canadian reprint, though the author had not complied with specific Canadian requirements, - a most significant decision in defense of international copyright.

Under the colonial copyright act of 1847, which declared local legislation or decrees repugnant to the Imperial law to be null and void, local legislation consonant with Imperial acts was permitted, subject to approval by the Crown through Orders in Council, in which case prohibition of importation of foreign reprints might be suspended by Order in Council with regard to the particular colony. Under this act, local legislation with special provisions existed in British India and other colonies, as well as in the "self-governing dominions," which last now include Canada and Newfoundland, Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa, and which have somewhat greater powers of local legislation. Under these local provisions, the Imperial law still prevails, local legislation being concurrent but not necessarily co-terminous with it, as is particularly noticeable in Canada, where there has been more or less conflict between the Imperial and Dominion authorities. Local protection may thus be extended, for instance, to works not first published within the British possessions, or in a unionist country, but copyright cannot be denied to works thus first published; and the Crown disapproves or disallows laws or provisions construed by the Imperial authorities to be repugnant to Imperial law. More than a score of colonies have adopted local laws or ordinances, some of which have been disallowed by the Crown. The status of copyright in the several colo

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