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
The Crown has held an exclusive and perpetual right to license the
printing of the Bible, Book of Common Prayer, ordnance surveys, and
possibly the Acts of Parliament; and specified universities and colleges
were assured perpetual copyright in works given or bequeathed to them
unless given for a limited term, but the right lapsed into the usual
copyright term unless the work were printed on their own presses and for
their own benefit. Under the new code, "without prejudice to any rights
or privileges of the Crown," any work prepared or published for His
Majesty or any Government department has copyright for fifty years from
first publication--the effect of which provision on Crown perpetual
copyrights is not clearly evident. A saving clause protects the
universities "in any right they already possess," inferentially limiting
their future copyrights to the statutory term. After the death of the
author of a literary, dramatic or musical work, on complaint of the
withholding of the work from publication or performance, the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council may require the owner to grant a license
to reproduce or perform the work in public under conditions determined
by the Committee. After twenty-five years, or in the case of existing
copyrights thirty years from the author's death, the work may be
reproduced by any person on prescribed notice in writing of his
intention and payment of ten per cent on the published price in
accordance with regulations by the Board of Trade.
{Sidenote: Other countries}
{Sidenote: International standard term}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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