Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/77

 KiGflTS. 65

A licence may or may not be revocable according to § 5 (2).

the terms thereof. Prima facie, a licence is revocable, ^

and even although the licensee may by the exercise of ijcenceTs the licence have created a substantial interest in its con- revocable, tinuation, that is not sufficient to render irrevocable a licence which in the first instance was revocable at the will of the owner of the copyright. For instance, the grantee of a licence to reproduce a photograph in an illus- trated paper cannot, merely because he has made a plate from which the photograph can be reproduced, allege that he has a vested interest w^iich entitles him to reproduce the photograph a second time in a future number of his paper (6). Where a licence is granted in general terms without any express condition that the right may be exer- cised for a specified time or for a specified purpose, there is a strong presumption that it is merely a licence at will which may be revoked at any time. The licence, however, cannot be revoked except upon notice which is reasonable under the circumstances. The owner of the copyright, having granted a licence in general terms, cannot revoke it just after the licensee has incurred ex- penditure in preparing for the reproduction of the work, but before the actual reproduction has taken place (c).

Even although a licence is revoked, or has otherwise Right to dis- terminated, the right to dispose of copies made during the ^°^^°^ copies subsistence of the licence continues in the absence of any ^^^^ ^^ agreement to the contrary. licence.

Licences may be granted for a definite period or for Licence for a a specified purpose, and if so granted for good considera- specified time tion are irrevocable until the period has elapsed or the specified purpose been accomplished, as the case may be. Thus, subject to the proviso in this section, a licence to reproduce may be granted for the full term of the copyright. If a licence is granted by the owner of the copyright to the proprietor of a collective work to reproduce his work as part of the collection, it is sub- mitted that such a licence is a licence for a specified purpose which is not accomplished so long as the licensee continues to reprint and sell the collective work. Such a licence, therefore, cannot be revoked at any time by

��{b) Bowden Bros. v. Amalgamated Pictorials, Ltd., [1911] 1 Ch. (c) Warne v. Routledge (1874), L. R. 18 Eq. 497.

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