Copyright: Its History and Its Law

27. The Legislature of any British possession to which this Act extends may modify or add to any of the provisions of this Act in its application to the possession, but, except so far as such modifications and additions relate to procedure and remedies, they shall apply only to works the authors whereof were, at the time of the making of the work, resident in the possession, and to works first published in the possession.

Application to protectorates

28. His Majesty may, by Order in Council, extend this Act to any territories under his protection and to Cyprus, and, on the making of any such Order, this Act shall, subject to the provisions of the Order, have effect as if the territories to which it applies or Cyprus were part of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends.

PART IIINTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT

Power to extend Act to foreign works

29. – (1) His Majesty may, by Order in Council, direct that this Act (except such parts, if any, thereof as may be specified in the Order) shall apply —

(a) to works first published in a foreign country to which the Order relates, in like manner as if they were first published within the parts of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends;

(b) to literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, or any class thereof, the authors whereof were at the time of the making of the work subjects or citizens of a foreign country to which the order relates, in like manner as if the authors were British subjects;

(c) in respect of residence in a foreign country to which the Order relates, in like manner as if such residence were residence in the parts of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends;

and thereupon, subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act and of the Order, this Act shall apply accordingly:

Provided that —

(i) before making an Order in Council under this section in respect of any foreign country (other than a country with which His Majesty has entered into a convention relating to copyright), His Majesty shall be satisfied that that foreign country has made, or has undertaken to make, such provisions, if any, as it appears to His Majesty expedient to require for the protection of works entitled to copyright under the provisions of Part I. of this Act;

(ii) the Order in Council may provide that the term of copyright within such parts of His Majesty's dominions as aforesaid shall not exceed that conferred by the law of the country to which the Order relates;

(iii) the provisions of this Act as to the delivery of copies of books shall not apply to works first published in such country, except so far as is provided by the Order;

(iv) the Order in Council may provide that the enjoyment of the rights conferred by this Act shall be subject to the accomplishment of such conditions and formalities (if any) as may be prescribed by the Order;

(v) in applying the provision of this Act as to ownership of copyright, the Order in Council may make such modifications as appear necessary having regard to the law of the foreign country;

49 & 50 Vict. c. 33.

(vi) in applying the provisions of this Act as to existing works, the Order in Council may make such modifications as appear necessary, and may provide that nothing in those provisions as so applied shall be construed as reviving any right of preventing the production or importation of any translation in any case where the right has ceased by virtue of section five of the International Copyright Act, 1886.

(2) An Order in Council under this section may extend to all the several countries named or described therein.

Application of Part II. to British possessions

30. – (1) An Order in Council under this Part of this Act shall apply to all His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends except self-governing dominions and any other possession specified in the order with respect to which it appears to His Majesty expedient that the Order should not apply.

(2) The Governor in Council of any self-governing dominion to which this Act extends may, as respects that dominion, make the like orders as under this Part of this Act His Majesty in Council is authorised to make with respect to His Majesty's dominions other than self-governing dominions, and the provisions of this Part of this Act shall, with the necessary modifications, apply accordingly.

(3) Where it appears to His Majesty expedient to except from the provisions of any order any part of his dominions not being a self-governing dominion, it shall be lawful for His Majesty by the same or any other Order in Council to declare that such order and this Part of this Act do not, and the same shall not, apply to such part, except so far as is necessary for preventing any prejudice to any rights acquired previously to the date of such Order.

PART IIISUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS

Abrogation of common law rights

31. No person shall be entitled to copyright or any similar right in any literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work, whether published or unpublished, otherwise than under and in accordance 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 construed as abrogating any right or jurisdiction to restrain a breach of trust or confidence.

Provisions as to Orders in Council

32. – (1) His Majesty in Council may make Orders for altering, revoking, or varying any Order in Council made under this Act, or under any enactments repealed by this Act, but any Order made under this section shall not affect prejudicially any rights or interests acquired or accrued at the date when the Order comes into operation, and shall provide for the protection of such rights and interests.

(2) Every Order in Council made under this Act shall be published in the London Gazette and shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament as soon as may be after it is made, and shall have effect as if enacted in this Act.

Saving of university copyright. 15 Geo. 3. c. 53

33. Nothing in this Act shall deprive any of the universities and colleges mentioned in the Copyright Act, 1775, of any copyright they already possess under that Act, but the remedies and penalties for infringement of any such copyright shall be under this Act and not under that Act.

Saving of compensation to certain libraries

34. There shall continue to be charged on, and paid out of, the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom such annual compensation as was immediately before the commencement of this Act payable in pursuance of any Act as compensation to a library for the loss of the right to receive gratuitous copies of books:

Provided that this compensation shall not be paid to a library in any year, unless the Treasury are satisfied that the compensation for the previous year has been applied in the purchase of books for the use of and to be preserved in the library.

Interpretation

35. – (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, —

"Literary work" includes maps, charts, plans, tables, and compilations;

"Dramatic work" includes any piece for recitation, choregraphic work or entertainment in dumb show, the scenic arrangement or acting form of which is fixed in writing or otherwise, and any cinematograph production where the arrangement or acting form or the combination of incidents represented give the work an original character;

"Artistic work" includes works of painting, drawing, sculpture and artistic craftsmanship, and architectural works of art and engravings and photographs;

"Work of sculpture" includes casts and models;

"Architectural work of art" means any building or structure having an artistic character or design, in respect of such character or design, or any model for such building or structure, provided that the protection afforded by this Act shall be confined to the artistic character and design, and shall not extend to processes or methods of construction;

"Engravings" include etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, prints, and other similar works, not being photographs;

"Photograph" includes photo-lithograph and any work produced by any process analogous to photography;

"Cinematograph" includes any work produced by any process analogous to cinematography;

"Collective work" means —

(a) an encyclopædia, dictionary, year book, or similar work;

(b) a newspaper, review, magazine, or similar periodical; and

(c) any work written in distinct parts by different authors, or in which works or parts of works of different authors are incorporated;

"Infringing," when applied to a copy of a work in which copyright subsists, means any copy, including any colourable imitation, made, or imported in contravention of the provisions of this Act;

"Performance" means any acoustic representation of a work and any visual representation of any dramatic action in a work, including such a representation made by means of any mechanical instrument;

"Delivery," in relation to a lecture, includes delivery by means of any mechanical instrument;

"Plate" includes any stereotype or other plate, stone, block, mould, matrix, transfer, or negative used or intended to be used for printing or reproducing copies of any work, and any matrix or other appliance by which records, perforated rolls or other contrivances for the acoustic representation of the work are or are intended to be made;

"Lecture" includes address, speech, and sermon;

"Self-governing dominion" means the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and Newfoundland.

(2) For the purposes of this Act (other than those relating to infringements of copyright), a work shall not be deemed to be published or performed in public, and a lecture shall not be deemed to be delivered in public, if published, performed in public, or delivered in public, without the consent or acquiescence of the author, his executors administrators or assigns.

(3) For the purposes of this Act, a work shall be deemed to be first published within the parts of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends, notwithstanding that it has been published simultaneously in some other place, unless the publication in such parts of His Majesty's dominions as aforesaid is colourable only and is not intended to satisfy the reasonable requirements of the public, and a work shall be deemed to be published simultaneously in two places if the time between the publication in one such place and the publication in the other place does not exceed fourteen days, or such longer period as may, for the time being, be fixed by Order in Council.

(4) Where, in the case of an unpublished work, the making of a work has extended over a considerable period, the conditions of this Act conferring copyright shall be deemed to have been complied with, if the author was, during any substantial part of that period, a British subject or a resident within the parts of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends.

(5) For the purposes of the provisions of this Act as to residence, an author of a work shall be deemed to be a resident in the parts of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends if he is domiciled within any such part.

Repeal

36. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the enactments mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that schedule:

Provided that this repeal shall not take effect in any part of His Majesty's dominions until this Act comes into operation in that part.

Short title and commencement

37. – (1) This Act may be cited as the Copyright Act, 1911.

(2) This Act shall come into operation —

(a) in the United Kingdom, on the first day of July nineteen hundred and twelve or such earlier date as may be fixed by Order in Council;

(b) in a self-governing dominion to which this Act extends, at such date as may be fixed by the Legislature of that dominion;

(c) in the Channel Islands, at such date as may be fixed by the States of those islands respectively;

(d) in any other British possession to which this Act extends, on the proclamation thereof within the possession by the Governor.

FIRST SCHEDULE

EXISTING RIGHTS.

[3] In the case of an essay, article, or portion forming part of and first published in a review, magazine, or other periodical or work of a like nature, the right shall be subject to any right of publishing the essay, article, or portion in a separate form to which the author is entitled at the commencement of this Act, or would if this Act had not been passed have become entitled under section eighteen of the Copyright Act, 1842.

For the purposes of this Schedule the following expressions, where used in the first column thereof, have the following meanings: —

"Copyright," in the case of a work which according to the law in force immediately before the commencement of this Act has not been published before that date and statutory copyright wherein depends on publication, includes the right at common law (if any) to restrain publication or other dealing with the work;

"Performing right," in the case of a work which has not been performed in public before the commencement of this Act, includes the right at common law (if any) to restrain the performance thereof in public.

SECOND SCHEDULE

ENACTMENTS REPEALED.

6a. FINE ARTS COPYRIGHT ACT, 1862

[Unrepealed Sections](25 & 26 VICTORIA, CHAPTER 68)

Penalties on fraudulent Productions and Sales

VII. No Person shall do or cause to be done any or either of the following Acts; that is to say,

First, no Person shall fraudulently sign or otherwise affix, or fraudulently cause to be signed or otherwise affixed, to or upon any Painting, Drawing, or Photograph, or the Negative thereof, any Name, Initials, or Monogram:

Secondly, no Person shall fraudulently sell, publish, exhibit, or dispose of, or offer for Sale, Exhibition, or Distribution, any Painting, Drawing, or Photograph, or Negative of a Photograph, having thereon the Name, Initials, or Monogram of a Person who did not execute or make such Work:

Thirdly, no Person shall fraudulently utter, dispose of, or put off, or cause to be uttered or disposed of, any Copy or colourable Imitation of any Painting, Drawing, or Photograph, or Negative of a Photograph, whether there shall be subsisting Copyright therein or not, as having been made or executed by the Author or Maker of the original Work from which such Copy or Imitation shall have been taken:

Fourthly, where the Author or Maker of any Painting, Drawing, or Photograph, or Negative of a Photograph, made either before or after the passing of this Act, shall have sold or otherwise parted with the Possession of such Work, if any Alteration shall afterwards be made therein by any other Person, by Addition or otherwise, no Person shall be at liberty, during the Life of the Author or Maker of such Work, without his Consent, to make or knowingly to sell or publish, or offer for Sale, such Work or any Copies of such Work so altered as aforesaid, or of any Part thereof, as or for the unaltered Work of such Author or Maker:

Penalties

Every Offender under this Section shall, upon Conviction, forfeit to the Person aggrieved a Sum not exceeding Ten Pounds, or not exceeding double the full Price, if any, at which all such Copies, Engravings, Imitations, or altered Works shall have been sold or offered for Sale; and all such Copies, Engravings, Imitations, or altered Works shall be forfeited to the Person, or the Assigns or legal Representatives of the Person, whose Name, Initials, or Monogram shall be so fraudulently signed or affixed thereto, or to whom such spurious or altered Work shall be so fraudulently or falsely ascribed as aforesaid: Provided always, that the Penalties imposed by this Section shall not be incurred unless the Person whose Name, Initials, or Monogram shall be so fraudulently signed or affixed, or to whom such spurious or altered Work shall be so fraudulently or falsely ascribed as aforesaid, shall have been living at or within Twenty Years next before the Time when the Offence may have been committed.

Recovery of pecuniary Penalties

VIII. All pecuniary Penalties which shall be incurred, and all such unlawful Copies, Imitations, and all other Effects and Things as shall have been forfeited by Offenders, pursuant to this Act, may be recovered by the Person hereinbefore and in any such Acts as aforesaid empowered to recover the same respectively, and hereinafter called the Complainant or the Complainer, as follows:

In England and Ireland

In England and Ireland, either by Action against the Party offending, or by summary Proceeding before any Two Justices having Jurisdiction where the Party offending resides:

In Scotland

In Scotland by Action before the Court of Session in ordinary Form, or by summary Action before the Sheriff of the County where the Offence may be committed or the Offender resides, and any Judgment so to be pronounced by the Sheriff in such summary Application shall be final and conclusive, and not subject to Review by Suspension, Reduction, or otherwise.

6b. MUSICAL (SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS) COPYRIGHT ACT, 1902

[Unrepealed](2 EDWARD VII., CHAPTER 15)An Act to amend the Law relating to Musical Copyright. [22d July, 1902.]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Seizure, etc.; of pirated copies

1. A court of summary jurisdiction, upon the application of the owner of the copyright in any musical work, may act as follows: If satisfied by evidence that there is reasonable ground for believing that pirated copies of such musical work are being hawked, carried about, sold, or offered for sale, may, by order, authorize a constable to seize such copies without warrant and to bring them before the court, and the court, on proof that the copies are pirated, may order them to be destroyed or to be delivered up to the owner of the copyright if he makes application for that delivery.

Power to seize copies on hawkers

2. If any person shall hawk, carry about, sell or offer for sale any pirated copy of any musical work, every such pirated copy may be seized by any constable without warrant, on the request in writing of the apparent owner of the copyright in such work, or of his agent thereto authorised in writing, and at the risk of such owner.

On seizure of any such copies, they shall be conveyed by such constable before a court of summary jurisdiction, and, on proof that they are infringements of copyright, shall be forfeited or destroyed, or otherwise dealt with as the court may think fit.

Definitions

3. "Musical copyright" means the exclusive right of the owner of such copyright under the Copyright Acts in force for the time being to do or to authorise another person to do all or any of the following things in respect of a musical work:

(1) To make copies by writing or otherwise of such musical work.

(2) To abridge such musical work.

(3) To make any new adaptation, arrangement, or setting of such musical work, or of the melody thereof, in any notation or system.

"Musical work" means any combination of melody and harmony, or either of them, printed, reduced to writing or otherwise graphically produced or reproduced.

"Pirated musical work" means any musical work written, printed, or otherwise reproduced, without the consent lawfully given by the owner of the copyright in such musical work.

Short title and commencement

4. This Act may be cited as The Musical (Summary Proceedings) Copyright Act, 1902, and shall come into operation on the first day of October one thousand nine hundred and two, and shall apply only to the United Kingdom.

6c. MUSICAL COPYRIGHT ACT, 1906

[Unrepealed](6 EDWARD VII., CHAPTER 36)An Act to amend the Law relating to Musical Copyright. [4th August, 1906.]

A. D. 1906

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: —

Penalty for being in possession of pirated music

1. – (1) Every person who prints, reproduces, or sells, or exposes, offers, or has in his possession for sale, any pirated copies of any musical work, or has in his possession any plates for the purpose of printing or reproducing pirated copies of any musical work, shall (unless he proves that he acted innocently) be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction, and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds, and on a second or subsequent conviction to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two months or to a fine not exceeding ten pounds: Provided that a person convicted of an offence under this Act who has not previously been convicted of such an offence, and who proves that the copies of the musical work in respect of which the offence was committed had printed on the title-page thereof a name and address purporting to be that of the printer or publisher, shall not be liable to any penalty under this Act unless it is proved that the copies were to his knowledge pirated copies.

Constable may take into custody without warrant

(2) Any constable may take into custody without warrant any person who in any street or public place sells or exposes, offers, or has in his possession for sale any pirated copies of any such musical work as may be specified in any general written authority addressed to the chief officer of police, and signed by the apparent owner of the copyright in such work or his agent thereto authorised in writing, requesting the arrest, at the risk of such owner, of all persons found committing offences under this section in respect to such work, or who offers for sale any pirated copies of any such specified musical work by personal canvass or by personally delivering advertisements or circulars.

(3) A copy of every written authority addressed to a chief officer of police under this section shall be open to inspection at all reasonable hours by any person without payment of any fee, and any person may take copies of or make extracts from any such authority.

(4) Any person aggrieved by a summary conviction under this section may in England or Ireland appeal to a court of quarter sessions, and in Scotland under and in terms of the Summary Prosecutions Appeals (Scotland) Act, 1875.

38 & 39 Vict. c. 62

Right of entry by police for execution of Act

2. – (1) If a court of summary jurisdiction is satisfied by information on oath that there is reasonable ground for suspecting that an offence against this Act is being committed on any premises, the court may grant a search warrant authorising the constable named therein to enter the premises between the hours of six of the clock in the morning and nine of the clock in the evening, and, if necessary, to use force for making such entry, whether by breaking open doors or otherwise, and to seize any copies of any musical work or any plates in respect of which he has reasonable ground for suspecting that an offence against this Act is being committed.

(2) All copies of any musical work and plates seized under this section shall be brought before a court of summary jurisdiction, and if proved to be pirated copies or plates intended to be used for the printing or reproduction of pirated copies shall be forfeited and destroyed or otherwise dealt with as the court think fit.

Definitions

3. In this Act —

"Pirated copies"

The expression "pirated copies" means any copies of any musical work written, printed, or otherwise reproduced without the consent lawfully given by the owner of the copyright in such musical work: