Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/394

Rh 364 COPYRIGHT fiaws. or dramatic pieces is subject to certain conditions enumerated in section 8 requiring registration, publication of an authorized translation within a certain time, &c. The Act requires, it seems, that the translation should give the English people the means of knowing the original as accurately as is possible by means of an English version ; and in a recent case, where the authors of Frou Frou had authorized a free English version with many changes of names, &c., and considerable omissions, it was held not to be a sufficient compliance with the statute. 1 The judge pronounced it to be an imitation or adaptation only, and said that if a true translation had been published first, the plaintiff might then have acted the &quot; version,&quot; and nobody else would have been allowed to act anything like it. In all these cases, it must be remembered, the Crown can grant copyright to foreign productions, only on condition that a convention securing reciprocal rights is concluded with the foreign power in question, in terms of the Interna tional Copyright Act. The countries with which conven tions have been concluded are the following : Prussia, Saxony, and other German states, in 1846 and 1847 ; France, 1852; Belgium, 1855; Spain, 1857: Sardinia; and Hesse Darmstadt, 18G2. Defects .iii An Association to Protect the Eights of Authors has copyright recently been formed with the object of calling attention to the more glaring defects of the existing laws of copyright. The chief points noticed by this association are the loss of rights by first production out of the United Kingdom ; the loss by dramatization of novels ; the unfair conditions of stage-right in translations of foreign plays, and especially the hardship of the &quot; fair adaptation &quot; clause ; the loss caused by the inefficient prohibition of pirated copies in Canada since the International Copyright Act was passed, and the absence of an international copyright treaty with the United States. Of these defects the &quot; adaptation clause : has been repealed since the association was formed, and the A.ct already noticed was passed in 1875 to give effect to a new Copyright Act of the Canadian Parliament. In 1876 a royal commission was appointed to consider the whole question of home, colonial, and international copyright. The question of international copyright between England and the United States has for sometime been the subject of active discussion among the authors and publishers of &quot;both countries. The chief opposition to a convention pro ceeds from various sections of the publishing trade in America. An interesting statement of the various groups of opinion on this subject in the United States, and of the attempts to frame a satisfactory International Copyright Act, will be found in an article by Dr C. E. Appleton in the Fortnightly Review for February 1877. At present a sort of customary copyright in English books is recognized by certain leading firms. When one of them has, by arrangement with the author, obtained the advance sheets of an English work, there is a tacit understanding that the others are not to reprint that particular work ; but this arrangement, it appears, &quot; is practically confined to those who are able to retaliate when the trade courtesy is vio lated.&quot; These great publishers have a monopoly of the English trade, and those who would gladly become their competitors, the booksellers of the Middle and Western States, would, according to Dr Appleton, oppose any Inter national Copyright Act which did not aid them to break tions to the English stage ot foreign plays, &c. Now comes the Act of 1375, which says that in case of any such order the Queen may direct that the said section 6 shall not apply, and thereupon the 15 Viet. c. 12 &quot; shall take effect &quot;with respect to such dramatic pieces, and to the translations thereof as if the said sixth section of the said Act were hereby repealed.&quot; So that the Queen may repeal the sixth section in .tny particular case so fai as to remit the question of &quot;fair adaptations junl imitations&quot; to the common law. 1 Wood v. Chart, (Law Reports, 10 Equity 204). down that monopoly. Some of the resolutions of a meet ing of the opponents of International Copyright at Phila delphia in January 1872 are worth quoting : 1. That thought, unless expressed, is the property of the thinker ; when given to the world it is as light, free to all. 2. As property it can only demand the protection of the muni cipal law of the country to which the thinker is subject. 3. The author of any country, by becoming a citizen of this, and assuming and performing the duties thereof, can have the same protection that an American author lias. 4. The trading of privileges to foreign authors, for privileges to be granted to Americans, is not just, because the interests of others than theirs are sacrificed thereby. 5. Because the good of the whole people, and the safety of our republican institutions, demand that books shall not be made too costly for the multitude by giving the power to foreign authors to fix their price here as well as abroad. Copyright of designs applicable to manufactures is pro- j tected by the 5 and 6 Viet. c. 100, and subsequent Acts f; amending the same. Before designs in general were pro- d tected, the copyright in designs for the manufacture of linens, cottons, calicos, and muslins had been recognized. The 5 and 6 Viet. c. 100. 3, enacts &quot; with regard to any new and original design, whether such design be applicable to the ornamenting of any article of manufacture, or of any substance, artificial or natural or partly artificial and partly natural, and whether for the pattern, for the shape or con figuration, or for the ornament thereof, and by whatever means the same may be applicable, whether by printing, painting, &c., the proprietor shall have the sole riglit of applying such design, for the terms specified in the Act, which vary according to the class of manufacture in ques tion.&quot; By 6 and 7 Viet. c. 65, copyright for three years was granted for designs &quot; having reference to some purpose of utility, so far as design shall be for the shape or configuration of such article.&quot; Registration in both cases is necessary. The period of protection varies from nine months to five years, and in certain cases an ex tended period may be granted by the Board of Trade. Cases under these Acts are more nearly allied to patents than to copyrights. COPYRIGHT IN FOREIGN STATES. France. Copyright i in France is recognized in the most ample manner. Two distinct rights are secured by law 1st, the right of repro duction of literary works, musical compositions, and works of art ; and 2d, the right of representation of dramatic works and musical compositions. The period is for the life of the author and fifty years after his death. After the author s death the surviving consort has the usu fructuary enjoyment of the rights which the author has not disposed of in his lifetime or by will, subject to reduction for the benefit of the author s protected heirs it any. The author may dispose of his rights in the most absolute manner in the forms and within the limits of the Code Napoldon. Piracy is a crime punishable by fine of not less than 100 nor more than 2000 francs ; in the case of a seller from 25 to 500 francs. The pirated edition will be confiscated. Piracy also forms the ground for a civil action of damages to the amount of the injury sustained the produce of the confiscation, if any, to go towards payment of the indemnity (Penal Code, Art. 425-429). The piracy on French territory of works published in a foreign country is, by a decree of 28th March 1852, brought within the above provisions. However, when a convention has been concluded with any state this treaty modifies the effects of the decree of 2^th March, in so far as its provisions may be in opposition to the said decree ; the prescriptions of the new convention become the special law of the parties, and the rights of the authors and artists of that state are regulated in France by the intervening convention&quot; (Resume of the Riyhts of Literary and Artistic Property in France, Longman & Co.).