Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/388

Rh 358 COPYRIGHT decision appears to have taken the 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 bill for this purpose actually passed the House of Commons, but Lord Camden s influence succeeded in defeating it in the House of Lords. The university copy rights were, however, protected in perpetuity by an Act passed in 1775. The arguments in the cases above mentioned raise the fundamental question whether there can be any property in literary works, and are really argu ments for and against the desirability of recognizing the rights on general principles. Lord Camden was the great opponent of copyright, both as a legislator and as a judge. His sentiments may be judged by his answer to the plea that copyright was a reward to men of genius : &quot; Glory is the reward of science, and those who deserve it scorn all meaner views. I speak not of the scribblers for bread, who teaze the press with their wretched productions. Fourteen years aro too long a privilege for their perishable trash. It was not for gain that Bacon, Newton, Milton, and Locke instructed and delighted the world. When the bookseller offered Milton five pounds for his Paradise Lost, he did not reject it and commit his poem to the flames, nor did he accept the miserable pittance as the reward of his labour ; ho knew that the real price of his work was im mortality, and that posterity would pay it.&quot; The battle of copyright at this time appears to have been fought mainly in the interests of the booksellers, and more particularly of the London booksellers. One member presented petitions from the country booksellers, another from the booksellers of Glasgow against the Booksellers Copyright Bill. Burke supported the bill, and Fox opposed it. In both Houses the opponents of the bill denounced the booksellers vehemently. Speaking of the Stationers Company, Lord Camden said, &quot; In 1G81 we find a by-law for the protection of their own company and their copy rights, which then consisted of all the literature of the kingdom ; for they had contrived to get all the copies into their own hands.&quot; Again, owner was the term applied to every holder of copies, and the word author does not occur once in all their entries. &quot; All our learning will be locked up in the hands of the Tonsons and Lintons of the age, who will set that price upon it their avarice chooses to demand, till tho public become their slaves as much as their hackney compilers now are. Instead of salesmen the booksellers of late years have forestalled the market, and become engrossers.&quot; In the discussions which preceded the- last Copyright Act, the interests of the authors are more prominent, but there are still curious traces of tha ancient hostility to booksellers. The proceedings both in Donaldson v. Beckett and in tho Booksellers Copyright Bill are recorded at considerable length in the Parliamentary History, vol. xvii. By the 41 Geo. III. c. 107 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 nil action on the case against any person in the United Kingdom, or British dominions in Europe, who should print, reprint, or import without the consent of the proprietor, first had in writing, signed in tho 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 double costs of suit. A second period of fourteen years was confirmed to the author, should he still be alive at tho cud of th-j first. Further, iu was forbidden to import into the United Kingdom for sale books first composed, written, or printed and published within tho United Kingdom, nnd reprinted elsewhere. Another change was made by the Act 54 Geo. III. c. 156, 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, &quot; and also, if the author be living at the end of that period, for the residuo of his natural life.&quot; The Copyright Act now in force is the 5 and 6 Yict. c. Existin 45, which repealed the previous Acts on the same subject. Ia of The principal clause is the following ( ?&amp;gt;) : That the copy- c 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 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 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 tho property of the proprietor of the author s manuscript from which such book shall be first published and his assigns. The benefit of the enlarged period is extended to sub sisting copyrights, unless they are the property of an assignee who has acquired them by purchase, in which case the period of copyright will be extended only if tho author or his personal representative agree with the pro prietor to accept the benefit of the Act. By section 5 tho judicial 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 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 editions thereof, at the British Museum. And a copy of every book and its sub sequent 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. The other libraries entitled to this privilege under the old Acts had been deprived thereof by an Act passed in 1836, and grants from the treasury, calculated on the annual average value of the books they had received, were ordered to be paid to them as compensation. A book of registry is ordered to be kept at Stationers Hall for the registration of copyrights, to be open to inspection on payment of one 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 evidence in the courts as prima facie 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 represent ation or performance. False entries shall be punished as misdemeanours. The entry is to record the title of tho book, the time of its publication, and the name and placo of 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 tho copyright itself. Any person deeming himself aggrieved by an entry in the registry may complain to one of the superior courts, which will ordu- it to be expunged or varied if necessary A proprietor may bring an action on the case for infringement of his copy right, and the defendant in such an action must give 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