Copyright: Its History and Its LawBowker, R. R. (Richard Rogers)
History
Copyright: Its History and Its Law
Bowker, R. R. (Richard Rogers)
Copyright -- History; Copyright -- United States -- History
A resident, under the American decisions, is a person who intends to
reside permanently in this country. It is decided by the intention of
the resident. A person who is residing here without intention of
permanence probably cannot maintain copyright under this clause. For
English copyright, on the contrary, a person temporarily residing in His
Majesty's dominions has been considered a resident. "The United States"
would doubtless be construed to include territories and dependencies, as
specific jurisdiction is given (sec. 34) to stated courts in Alaska,
Hawaii, the Philippine Islands and Porto Rico, in addition to the
general decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court.
Under the statute of Anne the English courts differed persistently on
the question whether a non-resident foreigner could obtain British
copyright by first publication within the British dominions, until in
1854, in the ultimate case of Jefferys _v._ Boosey, the House of Lords,
after consulting the judges, of whom six denied and four sustained the
contention, decided unanimously that a non-resident foreigner could not
acquire copyright by first publication. Under the law of 1842, the
question was again raised, in view of the variation of the language from
that in the statute of Anne; in 1868, in the case of Routledge _v._ Low,
in which an American author claimed copyright for his work first
published in London while he resided for a few days in Canada, the House
of Lords held that a foreigner might thus obtain copyright by temporary
residence within the British dominions and indicated, but did not
decide, that a foreigner could obtain copyright by first publication,
even if not temporarily resident within the British dominions. After the
passage of the "international copyright amendment" in 1891, the American
law authorities consulted with the law officers of the Crown, who
rendered a decision that foreign authors were entitled to British
copyright on the sole condition of first publication, and on this
decision the President based his proclamation of reciprocal relations
with Great Britain. The new British measure retains first publication
within the included parts of the Empire as the essential condition,
except in unpublished works, unless otherwise provided under
international copyright, though the Crown may withdraw this privilege
from foreigners whose countries do not assure reciprocity.
{Sidenote: Intending citizens}
The provision of subsection (a) is chiefly useful, it would seem, to
protect intending citizens who have applied for naturalization papers
and incidentally renounced their previous allegiance to another power
and thus put themselves beyond the pale of the international
conventions.
{Sidenote: Time of first publication}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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