Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/101

 Civil Remedies. 89

shall be deemed to be the property of the owner § 9. of the copyright (h), or as impose summary penalties (/), shall not apply in any case to which tliis section ajjplies.

��Nature of protection given to

��Tho extension of copyright protection so as to include the solo right of constructing a building where the design is novel and artistic is conferred by this Act for the first architect. time. An architect's plans were protected under the Fine Arts Copyright Act, 1862. as drawings, and the architect could prevent the reproduction of his plans, or of any novel artistic feature contained therein, upon other plans either directly or indirectly. Under this Act the construc- tion of a building may be an infringement of the archi- tect's copyright.

The inclusion of architecture as a specific subject of protection follows upon its inclusion in the Berlin Con- vention as a subject for which international protection is demanded. The idea of extending copyriglit to archi- tecture in this country was, however, very strenuously resisted. A considerable body of evidence was taken on the subject before the departmental committee, presided over by Lord Gorell, and the committee by a majority decided that architecture should be included. The dis- sentients were Mr. Justice Sorutton, Mr. Trevor Williams, and Mr. Joynson Hicks, who thought that the difficulties of trj-ing cases of alleged infringement would be so great that the architects would be no better off than they are at present. The tendency to hamper the development of the architectural art was also put forward as an objection to the granting of copyright. In the House of Commons architecture only got through Grand Committee by a small majority, and through the House of Commons on the report stage by the assistance of the Government whips. As a result of the strenuous opposition to the principle of protecting architecture, the architects had to be content with a considerably modified protection, and this seetion will make the architects' rights extremely, shadowy in perhaps most cases of infringement. The defendant will be able to resist an injunction in so far

��(//) Sect. 7. (i) Sects. 11 — 13.

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