Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/132

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��CoPYKiGHT Act, 1911.

��§16.

��Proceedings in respect of infringement of joint work.

��were held to be tenants in common were assignees each of an undivided moiety of the copyright. As regards the shares to which each of several joint authors may be entitled, it would seem that, as it must be quite impossible to arrive at any reasonably accurate conclusion as to the proportionate value of their contributions, it would be held that they take equal shares (o). Where copyright is in- fringed proceedings for an injunction and delivery up may be taken by one tenant in common in his own name without joining the others (p). If, however, damages or profits are claimed, all the tenants in common should be before the Court either as plaintiffs or defendants, so that their proper shares may be determined and an inquiry as to damages taken once in respect of all claims (g).

Where one of the joint authors is a person who w^ould not be entitled to copyright if he was sole author, as in the case of a foreign author of an unpublished work or a foreign author whose countr}' has been proscribed under sect. 23, then the other joint author or authors, not being so disentitled, must for the purposes of this Act and any proceedings for infringement be deemed to be the sole author or authors. The author, however, w^ho is disen- titled from taking a legal copyright under the Act will have an equitable interest in the copyright to the extent of his share, and wall be able to enforce such interest against the legal owners of the copyright. This, no doubt, is the reason why the duration of the copyright is to be the same as if all the authors had satisfied the condi- tions of the Act.

The case of a married woman Avriting a joint work with her husband is not covered by any of the provisions of the Married Women's Proport}^ Acts, and her interest becomes under the common law part of her husband's estate. Sub-sect. (4) was necessary in order to give a married woman equal rights with her husband in their joint work.

��Posthumous works.

��17. — (1) In the case of a literary(r) dramatic(s)

��(o) Jones V. Jloore (1841), 4 Y. & C. Ex. 351, 357.

Ip) Pouell V. mad (1879), 12 Ch. D. 686 ; Sheehan v. Gnat Eastern (1880), 16 Ch. D. 59.

[q) Bergmaytn v. MactniUan (1881), L. R. 17 Ch. D. 423. (r) Sect. 35 (1) (" Literary work"). («) Sect. 35 (1) ("Dramatic work").

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