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LITERARY
See also:COPYRIGHT
2
.
See also:United See also:Kingdom.—On the invention of See also:printing (see See also:PRESS
See also:LAWS) the See also:crown, or other See also:sovereign See also:powers, granted See also:patents
or licences with the See also:object of restricting the right of
Histork4l
multiP1Ying copies of literary See also:works, and this super-
See also:vision of publication still has certain See also:historical results
.
A See also:special See also:kind of what amounts to perpetual copyright in various
publications has for various reasons been recognized by the laws
(1) in the crown, and (2) in the See also:universities and colleges
.
The
various copyright acts, referred to below, except from their
provisions the copyrights vested in the two See also:English and the four
Scottish universities, Trinity See also:College, See also:Dublin, and the colleges of
See also:Eton, See also:Westminster and See also:Winchester
.
Crown copyrights are saved
by the See also:general principle which exempts crown rights from the
operation of statutes unless they are expressly mentioned
.
Among the books in which the crown has claimed copyright are
the English See also:translation of the See also:Bible, the See also:Book of See also:Common
See also:Prayer, statutes, orders of privy See also:council,proclamations, almanacs,
See also:Lilly's Latin See also:Grammar, See also:year books and See also:law reports
.
The copy-
right in the Bible is rested by some on the See also:
Law reports were decided to be the See also:property of the crown in the
reign of See also:
The records of the Stationers' See also:Company show that the See also:purchase and See also:sale of copy-rights had become an established usage, and the loss of the See also:protection, incidentally afforded by the Licensing Act, was See also:felt as a serious grievance, which ultimately led to the statute of 1709
.
That statute, as the See also:judges in See also:Millar v
.
See also: Millar v . Taylor, however, was speedily overruled by the case of See also:Donaldson v . Beckett in the See also:House of Lords in 1794 . The judges were called upon to state their opinions . A majority (seven to four) were of opinion that the author and his assigns had at common law the sole right of publication in See also:perpetuity . A majority (six to five) were of opinion that this right had been taken away by the statute of 1709, and a term of years substituted for the perpetuity . The decision appears to have taken the See also:trade by surprise . Many booksellers had purchased copyrights not protected by the statute, and they now petitioned parliament to be relieved from the consequences of the decision in Donaldson v . Beckett . A See also:bill for this purpose actually passed the House of See also:Commons, but Lord See also:Camden's See also:influence succeeded in defeating it in the House of Lords . The result is that from that time on See also:ordinary copyright has been recognized except in so far as it is sanctioned by statute . The university copyrights were, however, protected in perpetuity by an act passed in 1775 . By an act of 18o1 the penalty for infringement of copyright was increased to threepence per sheet, in addition to the forfeiture of the book . The proprietor was to have an See also:action on the case against any person in. the United Kingdom, or See also:British dominions in See also:Europe, who should print, reprint, or import without the consent of the proprietor, first had in See also:writing, signed in the presence of two or more credible witnesses, any book or books, or who knowing them to be printed, &c., without the proprietor's consent should sell, publish, or expose them for sale; the proprietor to have his damages as assessed by the jury, and See also:double See also:costs of suit . A second See also:period of fourteen years was confirmed to the author, should he still be alive at the end of the first . Further, it was forbidden to import into the United Kingdom for sale books first composed, written, or printed and published within the United Kingdom, and reprinted elsewhere . Another See also:change was made by the act of 1814, which in substitution for the two periods of fourteen years gave to the author and his assignees copyright for the full term of twenty-eight years from the date of the first publication, " and also, if the author be living at the end of that period, for the See also:residue of his natural See also:life." 4 . The Copyright Act of 1842 repealed the previous acts on the same subject, and is the basis of the existing law . Its preamble stated its object to be to encourage the See also:production of " literary See also:matter of lasting benefit to the See also:world." The 1842 . See also:principal clause is the following (§ 3) : That the copy- right 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 See also:death, and shall be the property of such author and his assignees; provided always that if the said term of seven years shall expire before the end of See also: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 of every book which shall be published after the death of its author shall endure for the term of forty-two years from the first publication thereof, and shall be the property of the proprietor of the author's See also:manuscript from which such book shall be first published and his assigns." The benefit of the enlarged period was extended to subsisting copyrights, unless they were the property of an assignee who had acquired them by purchase, in which case the period of copyright would be extended only if the author or his See also:personal representative agreed with the proprietor to accept the benefit of the act . By section 5 the judicial See also:committee of the privy council may license the republication of books which the proprietor of the copyright thereof refuses to publish after the death of the author . The See also:sixth section provides for the delivery within certain times of copies of all books published after the passing of the act, and of all subsequent See also:editions thereof, at the British Museum . And a copy of every book and its subsequent editions must be sent on demand to the following libraries: the Bodleian at Oxford, the public library at Cambridge, the library of the faculty of advocates in Edinburgh, and that of Trinity College, Dublin . Other libraries (the libraries of the four Scottish Universities, King's Inns, Dublin, and Sion College) entitled to this See also:privilege under the earlier acts had been deprived thereof by an act passed in '836, and grants from the See also:treasury, calculated on the See also:annual See also:average value of the books they had received, were ordered to be paid to them as See also:compensation . A book of registry is ordered to be kept at Stationers' Hall for the registration of copyrights, to be open to inspection on See also:payment of one See also:shilling for every entry which shall be searched for or inspected . And the officer of Stationers' Hall shall give a certified copy of any entry when required, on payment of five shillings; and such certified copies shall be received in See also:evidence in the courts as prima facie See also:proof of proprietorship or assignment of copyright or licence as therein expressed, and, in the case of dramatic or musical pieces, of the right of See also:representation or performance . False entries shall be punished as misdemeanours . The entry is to See also:record the See also:title of the book, the time of its publication, and the name and See also:place of See also:abode of the publisher and proprietor of copyright . Without making such entry no proprietor can bring an action for infringement of his copyright, but the entry is not otherwise to affect the copyright itself . Any person deeming himself aggrieved by an entry in the registry may complain to one of the See also:superior courts, which will order it to be expunged or varied if necessary . A proprietor may bring an action on the case for infringement of his copyright, and the defendant in such an action must give See also:notice of the objections to the plaintiff's title on which he means to rely . No person except the proprietor of the copyright is allowed to import into the British dominions for sale or hire any book first composed or written or printed and published in the United Kingdom, and reprinted elsewhere, under penalty of forfeiture and a fine of L10 . The proprietor of any See also:encyclopaedia, See also:review, See also:magazine, periodical work, or work published in a See also:series of books or parts, who shall have employed any person to compose the same, or any volumes, parts, essays, articles, or portions thereof, for publication on the terms that the copyright therein shall belong to such proprietor, shall enjoy the term of copyright granted by the act.' But the proprietor may not publish separately any See also:article or review without the author's consent, nor may the author unless he has reserved the right of See also:separate publication . Where neither party has reserved the right they may publish by agreement, but the author at the end of twenty-eight years may publish separately . Proprietors of periodical works shall be entitled to all the benefits of registration under the act, on entering in the registry the title, the date of first publication of the first See also:volume or See also:part, and the names of proprietor and publisher . The See also:interpretation clause of the act defines a book to be every volume, part, or See also:division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of See also:letter-press, sheet of See also:music, See also:map, See also:chart, or See also:plan separately published . 5 . During the last See also:quarter of the '9th See also:century the question of copyright became continually more prominent, and a considerable See also:extension was given by judicial interpretation to the See also:scope of the act of 1842 . " Literary matter of lasting benefit to the world " came to include every publication (not being illegal) which could be described as " literary " or " original," the criterion as to the latter qualification being, in the last resort, whether (see Trade See also:Auxiliary Co. v . Middlesborough Association, '889, 40 Ch.D . 425) the author or compiler has really put his own See also:brain-work into it . 6 . The most marked and certain progress has been in the application of the law of copyright to the periodical press, in order to protect within reasonable limits the labour See also:News- and See also:expenditure of See also:newspapers that obtain for the papers . public the earliest news and arrange it for publication . It is settled law since 188' (See also:Walter v . See also:Howe, '7 Ch.D . 708, over-ruling See also:Cox v . See also:Land S' See also:Water See also:Journal Co., '869), that a newspaper is a book within the meaning of the act, and can claim all rights that a Look has under the Copyright Act . Thus, leading articles, special articles, and even news items are protected (Walter v . Steinkcpff, 1892, 3 Ch . 489; See also:Exchange See also:Telegraph Co. v . See also:Gregory ' Such articles must be paid for, in order to vest copyright in the proprie tor . The leading case about encyclopaedias is that of See also:Lawrence and Bullen v . Aflalo, decided by the House of Lords in 1904.and Co., '896, i Q.B . 147) . Current prices of See also:stocks and shares, translations, the compilation of a See also:directory, summaries of legal proceedings, and other similar literary work, so far as the literary form, the labour and See also:money are concerned, are equally protected . In See also:short, the test may now be broadly stated to be, whether labour of the brain and expenditure of money have been given for the production; whilst the old requirement of original matter is very broadly interpreted . The leading case on the subject is Walter v . See also:Lane (decided in the House of Lords, 6th See also:August 'goo) . The question there raised was, whether or not copyright applied under the act of 1842 in respect of verbatim reports of speeches .
Four law lords, viz
.
Lord Chancellor See also:Halsbury, Lord Davey, Lord See also: Sime, '887, 12 A.C . 326 . 8 . The writer of private letters sent to another person may in general restrain their publication . It was urged in some of the cases that the sender had abandoned his property in the letter by the act of sending; but this was denied letters . Private by Lord Hardwicke (See also:Pope v . Curl in 1741), who held that at most the See also:receiver only might take some kind of joint property in the letter along with the author . See also:Judge See also:Story, in the See also:American case of Folsom v . See also:Marsh, 2 Story (Amer.) 'oo, states the law as follows: " The author of any letter or letters, and his representatives, whether they are literary letters or letters of business, possess the sole and exclusive copyright therein; and no person, neither those to whom they are addressed, nor other persons, have any right or authority to publish the same upon their own See also:account or for their own benefit." But there may be special occasions justifying such publication . See also the English case of See also:Macmillan v . Dent (1905) . 9 . The question of what is an infringement of copyright has been the subject of much discussion . It was decided under the statute of '709 that a repetition from memory was not a publication so as to be an infringement of Test of infringe . copyright . In the case of See also:Reade v . See also:Conquest, '861, merit . 9 C.B., the same view was taken . The defendant had dramatized the plaintiff's novel It's Never too See also:Late to Mend, and the piece was performed at his See also:theatre . This was held to be no See also:breach of copyright; but the circulation of copies of a See also:drama, so taken from a copyright novel, whether gratuitously or for sale, is not allowed . Then again it is often a difficult question to decide whether the alleged piratical copyright does more than make that See also:fair use of the original author's materials which the law permits . It is not every act of borrowing literary matter from another which is piracy, and the difficulty is to draw the See also:line between what is fair and what is unfair . Lord See also:Eldon put the question thus,—whether the second publication is a legitimate use of the other in the fair exercise of a See also:mental operation deserving the character of an original work . Another test proposed is " whether you find on the part of the defendant an animus furandi—an intention to take for the purpose of saving himself See also:Recent extensions . labour." No one, it has been said, has a right to take, whether with or without See also:acknowledgment, a material and substantial portion of another's work, his arguments, his illustrations, his authorities, for the purpose of makinng or improving a See also:rival publication . When the materials are open to all, an author may acquire copyright in his selection or arrangement of them . Several cases have arisen on this point between the publishers of rival directories . Here it has been held that the subsequent compiler is See also:bound to do for himself what the original compiler had done . When the materials are thus in medio, as the phrase is, it is considered a fair test of piracy to examine whether the mistakes of both works are the same . If they are, piracy will be inferred . Translations stand to each other in the same relation as books constructed of materials in common . The animus furandi, mentioned above as a test of piracy, does not imply deliberate intention to steal; it may be quite compatible with See also:ignorance even of the copyright work . Abridgments, moreover, of original works appear to be favoured by the courts—when the act of abridgment is itself an act of the understanding, " employed in carrying a large work into a smaller See also:compass, and rendering it less expensive." Lord See also:Hatherley, however, in Tinsley v . See also:Lacy, 1863, 1 H . & M . 747, incidentally expressed his disapproval of this feeling—holding that the courts had gone far enough in this direction, and that it was difficult to acquiesce in the See also:reason sometimes given that the compiler of an abridgment is a benefactor to mankind by assisting in the See also:diffusion of knowledge .
A mere selection or compilation, so as to bring the materials into smaller space, will not be a See also:bona fide abridgment; " there must be real substantial condensation, and intellectual labour, and See also:judgment bestowed thereon " (Justice Story)
.
A publication professing to be A See also:Christmas See also:Ghost Story, Reoriginated from the Original by Charles See also:Dickens, Esq., and Analytically Condensed expressly for this Work, was found (Dickens v
.
See also: 2 Ex . 230, in which a See also:contract to let a See also:room for lectures of an irreligious character was held not to be binding . 11 . The quasi-copyright in titles of books, See also:periodicals, &c. is founded on the desirability of preventing one person from putting off on the public his own productions as those Titles of of another . This is, however, not copyright, but a works . question of ordinary See also:fraud . The name of a journal (if sufficiently established) is a See also:species of trade-See also:mark in which the law recognizes what it calls a " species of property," provided any misleading of the public is involved . Thus, the Wonderful Magazine was invaded (1803) by a publication calling itself the Wonderful Magazine, New Series Improved . See also:Bell's Life in London was pirated (1859) by a See also:paper calling itself the Penny Bell's Life . The proprietors of the London Journal got an injunction (1859) against the Daily London Journal, which was projected by the person from whom they had bought their own paper, and who had covenanted with them not to publish any weekly journal of a similar nature . A See also:song published under the title of Minnie, sung by Madame See also:Anna Thillon and See also:Miss Dolby at See also:Monsieur See also:Jullien's concerts, was invaded (1855) by a song to the same |