Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/120

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��Copyright Act, 1911.

��§ 14. British possession to which this Act extends of copies of works made out of that possession.

��Supersedes Copyright Act. 1842,

��Alterations in law.

��Meaning of "copy."

��This section takes the place of sect. 17 of the Copy- right Act, 1842, the paragraph in sect. 42 of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, relating to books, and sects. 44, 45 and 152 of the last-mentioned Act.

The substantial alterations "which the section effects in the law relating to the importation of foreign reprints are —

(1) The principle of protecting the author against

the importation of foreign reprints, whether made with or without his consent, is extended to all works protected by the Act. Under ex- isting law it applies only to books.

(2) Protection is afforded against the importation of

colonial copies as well as foreign copies.

(3) The Crown has no power as under existing law to

remove the j^rohibition in the case of any British possession.

The meaning of "copies" is not detined in the Act. It is clear that not every work which would be an in- fringement within the meaning of sect. 2 is necessarily a " copy " within the meaning of this section. It is sub- mitted that even where a work is an "infringing copy" within the meaning of sect. 7 and the definition section [d) (which defines "infringing" in relation to a copy), it is not necessarily a "copy" within the meaning of this section. The words used in sect. 7 show that the copy of part of a work may be an infringing copy. Appa- rently, however, the "copy" referred to in this section means a copy of substantially the whole work. It is doubtful whether it is permissible for the purpose of this section to borrow from the definition clause the words w^hich make "copy" include colourable imitation. On the whole, it is submitted that "copy" in this section does not include "colourable imitation," but only a repro- duction literatim et verbatim in the same form. It is submitted, for instance, that a translation would not be

��d) Sect. 3.3 (1) ("Infringing").

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