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 by the U. S. Senate, February 16, 1911, has the effect of authorizing the President to proclaim reciprocal relations with other countries which are parties to that treaty, as each ratifies the convention.

The new British measure specifies that "the author The new of a work shall be the first owner of the copyright," except where an engraving, photograph, or portrait is ordered for valuable consideration or where work is done in the course of employment. The owner may assign the copyright in writing, "either wholly or partially, and either generally or subject to limitations to any particular country, and either for the whole term of the copyright or for any part thereof, and may grant any interest in the right by license"; in case of partial assignment, the original owner and the assignee become respectively the owners of the residual and assigned portions of the copyright. But any assignment, except by will, becomes null and void twenty-five years after the death of the author when the entire rights revert to his heirs.

In general the statutes of most of the copyright countries designate "authors" and their "assigns and heirs" as the persons who may obtain copyright. The Australian law of 1905 defines " author " to include " the personal representatives of an author." In certain countries the laws specifically mention as persons who may secure copyright "joint authors," "proprietors" in some countries and "publishers" in other countries of anonymous and pseudonymous, posthumous or unpublished works, periodicals and composite works, "corporate bodies," "translators," "editors, compilers or adapters" and "persons who give a commission for a portrait or photograph."