Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/143

 Special Pkovisions as to certain Wokks. 131

means of which the work may be me- § ^^0)- chanically performed. (8) Notwithstanding anything in this Act(c), where a record, perforated roll, or other con- trivance by means of which sounds may be mechanically reproduced has been made before the commencement of this Act, copyright shall, as from the commencement of this Act, subsist therein in like manner and for the like term as if this Act had been in force at the date of the making of the original plate from which the contrivance was directly or indirectly derived : Provided that —

(i) the person who, at the commencement of this Act, is the owner of such original plate shall be the first owner of such copyright ; and (ii) nothing in this provision shall be con- strued as conferring copyright in any such contrivance if the making thereof would have infringed copyright in some other such contrivance, if this provision had been in force at the time of the making of the first-men- tioned contrivance.

Under existing law, the making of records, perforated Existing law. rolls and other such contrivances is not an infringement of copyright in the sheet music (d). Neither is there any copyright in a record, and thus a record which has cost a great deal to produco owing to the large fee paid to an operatic singer, may be reproduced by any other manufacturers of records without permission.

(c) Sect. 24. {d) Ante, pp. 14, 22.

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