Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/173

 Supplemental Provisions. 161

The Copyright Act, 1775, was passed in order to pro- s 33. tect the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the — Scottish Universities, and the Colleges of Eton, West- uS^rsity minster and Winchester from the decision in Donaldson copyright. V. Beckett (a), which was to the effect that, since the pass- ing of the Statute of Anne, there was no copyright in a published book after the expiration of the ^^criod of statutory copyright. The Act granted a perpetual copy- right in any book which might be " bequeathed or other- wise given" to one of the above-named Universities or Colleges. As a condition precedent to the enjoyment of the right, the book for which the privilege is claimed must have been registered at Stationers' Hall Avithin two months after the time when the bequest or gift of the copyright became known to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, or head of the College. The privilege is also conditional upon the book continuing to be printed only within the University or College, and for its sole benefit and .advantage.

In so far as any perpetual copyright has already been Universitj- acquired and subsists at the date of the Act coming copyright into operation, it will continue as a perpetual right, sub- ^(.^'^ ^ ject to the same conditions as to printing within the university ,or college precincts as before. The special remedy in respect of infringement, which was given by the Act of 1775, that is to say, a right to recover one penny for every sheet found in the custody of the in- fringer, is taken away, and the ordinary remedies for infringement of copyright are substituted.

Inasmuch as the Act of 1775 will be repealed, no per- petual copyrights can be created after the new Act comes into force, and bequests or gifts to the universities or colleges will, in the future, carry no more than the period of copyright then belonging to the author or other assignor of the copyright.

34. There shall continue to be charged on, Saving of and paid out of, the Consolidated Fund of the toSain**^ United Kingdom such annual compensation as ^ ^^™^" was immediately before the commencement of this Act payable in pursuance of any Act as

{a} (1774), 2 Bro. P. C. 129 ; Cob. Pari. Hist. VoL 17, p. 954. M. M

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