Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/171

 Supplemental Provisions s. 159

��PART III.

Supplemental Provisions.

31. No person shall be entitled to copyright § 31. or any similar right in any literary, dramatic, Abrogation musical, or artistic work, whether published or law rights. unpublished, otherwise than under and in accord- ance with the provisions of this Act, or of any other statutory enactment for the time being in force, but nothing in this section shall be con- strued as abrogating any right or jurisdiction to restrain a breach of trust or confidence.

As statutory coj)jrig'lit will subsist in all works, Common whether ijublished or unpublished, there is no necessity "^^^^ for ,a concurrent common law right in uniDublishcd w^orks. by statutory The result, however, of the total abrogation of common right. law rights is to weaken to a certain extent the protection afforded to unpublished works —

(1) The statutory remedies being substituted for the

common law remedies, the right to proceed against jDersons in possession of or dealing with infringements is considerably restricted.

(2) Although literary, dramatic, and musical works

and engravings will be protected in perpetuity until publication, drawings, paintings and photographs, although unpublished, will not be protected after the expiration of life and fifty years, or in the case of photographs, fifty years from the making of the negative.

The concluding words were inserted on the report stage in the House of Lords so as to make it clear that the abrogation of common law rights only applies to the common law proprietary right. The right to proceed

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