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 limitations and conditions relative to the application of this
article shall be determined by the domestic legislation of each country
in its own case; but all limitations and conditions of this nature shall
have an effect strictly limited to the country which shall have adopted
them.
"The provisions of paragraph 1 have no retroactive effect, and therefore
are not applicable in a country of the Union to works which, in that
country, shall have been lawfully adapted to mechanical instruments
before the going into force of the present Convention.
"The adaptations made by virtue of paragraphs 2 and 3 of this article
and imported without the authorization of the parties interested into a
country where they are not lawful, may be seized there."
{Sidenote: German precedents}
In Germany, under the general copyright law of 1870, the higher courts
gave to musical composers control over mechanical reproductions from
which, as the industry grew, the authors or publishers obtained some
little return. But succeeding the adoption of the permissive clause in
the Berne convention of 1886, it was proposed in the new copyright law
to free mechanical reproductions from the control of the composer. A
protest was at once made by musical authors and publishers, which
resulted in a modification of the form proposed by the government and
the addition of a clause giving control where the reproduction involved
personal interpretation. In this form the "unfortunate section 22"
became part of the law of 1901 relating to copyright in literary and
musical works. Section 22 was in the following language:
"Reproduction is permitted when a musical composition is, after
publication, transferred to such discs, plates, cylinders, bands and
similar parts of instruments for the mechanical rendering of pieces of
music. This provision is applicable also to interchangeable parts,
provided that they are not applied to instruments by which the work can,
as regards strength and duration of tone and tempo, be rendered in a
manner resembling a personal performance."
{Sidenote: Law of 1910}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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