IT ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
apply, either directly or through a book seller or other agent, to the per- 
son so licensed to reproduce such book, for a copy of any edition of such 
book then on sale and reasonably obtainable in the United Kingdom or 
some other part of Her Majesty’s dominions, and it shall then be the 
duty of the person so licensed, as soon as reasonably may be, to import 
and sell such copy to the person so applying therefor, at the ordinary 
selling price of such copy in the United Kingdom or such other part of 
Her Majesty’s dominions, with the duty and reasonable forwarding 
charges added ; and the failure or neglect, without lawful excuse, of the 
person so licensed to supply such copy within a reasonable time, shall be 
a reason for which the Minister may, if he sees fit, suspend or revoke the 
prohibition upon importation. 
4. The Minister shall forthwith inform the Department of Customs 
of any order made by him under this Act. 
5. All books imported in contravention of this Act may be seized 
by any officer of Customs, and shall be forfeited to the Crown and 
destroyed ; and any person importing, or causing or permitting the im- 
portation, of any book in contravention of this Act shall, for each offence, 
be lable, upon summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding one 
hundred dollars. 
Toronto, 28th May, 1900. 
DEAR SIR JOHN BOURINOT : 
I have great pleasure in responding to your desire that I should 
send you a memorandum upon the question of Canadian Copyright, 
although I think you will agree with me that it is not easy to compress 
within reasonable limits any useful summary of so complex a subject. 
In the following notes I have made free use of a private memorandum, 
for which I am indebted to Lord Thring, who has drawn the bill now 
before Imperial Parliament, and who has given the whole subject of 
copyright more study than perhaps anyone else. 
The British Copyright Act of 1842 following the example of the 
Act of Ann (1709, 8 Ann, c. 21) extended copyright to the whole of Her 
Majesty’s dominions ; but did not extend to the colonies the right to 
grant copyright throughout the Empire for books first published in the 
colonies. This was remedied in 1886, when by the International Copy- 
right Act (49 and 50 Vict., c. 33) British copyright was extended to books 
first published in the colonies as if they had been published in the United 
Kingdom. Books published anywhere in the Empire had thus Imperial 
copyright. 
