Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/49

 Rights. 37

lication, probably gives a very fair deiinition of news- § 2 (1) [y). pa2:)er in the popular sense, and in the absence of an express deiinition might very projDerly be applied in the oonstruction of this Act. As there is no statutory re- striction on the interval which may elapse between the publication of each number or part, it is clear that monthly journals might come within the meaning of newspai^er, provided their contents consisted wholly or in great part of news, current topics and articles relating thereto. Monthly and quarterly reviews, scientific maga- zines, and legal and medical journals might all fall within the definition of a newspaper.

The right of a newspaper in respect of a lecture de- Summary of livered in public is:^ -^K""

(1) To i^rint a fair summary; respect of a

(2) To print reasonable extracts for the purpose of l'^'^'^^"'^-

criticism;

(3) To print a verbatim report, unless such report is

prohibited by the i^rescribod notice.

If the lecture deals with political matters, it may fall under the heading of "an address of a political nature," and may, therefore, be reported verbatim in any news- paper, notwithstanding any attempted prohibition by notice (jin).

Existing law- — So long as a lecture remains unpublished either by Lectures at printing' or delivery in public, there is a common law right under common law which all reproduction can be prohibited {a). Before the Lectures find under the Copyright Act, 1835 {p), there was no protection for a lecture which Lectures had lost the common law right by being delivered in public, but ^^Py'^'i^Ji,* which had not acquired copyright under the Copj'right Act of Anne ' ^^"^■^• by publication as a book. The Lectures Copyright Act, 1835, was passed to remedy this defect, and it provided that if the prescribed notice should be given to two justices of the peace before the de- livery of a lecture in public, then the author should retain the sole right of first publication. This right, like the common law right in an unpublished work, was perpetual, or until such time as the author or his representative should authorise the lecture to be Ijrinted or published, and so acquire copyright in it as a book.

All lectures, sermons and speeches delivered in public without any express or implied condition attached to the right of admission, must be treated as having been published in the sense that no common law right could be asserted on the part of the author or

��(nn) Sect. 20.

(o) Cairdy. Simc (1887), 12 A. C. 326,

[p) 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 65.

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