336 THE BRITISH LAW OF ARTISTIC COPYRIGHT 



sary, any unfair exclusion of a member by the family." If a family head abuses his powers, 

 such powers may be suspended. In short, the rights incident to the patria potestas are 

 fading while its duties are emerging into clearer relief. 



Some other matters may be noticed: An old age pension scheme has been passed, the 

 age being fixed at 70. Selling intoxicating liquors to a minor has been made punishable. 

 Horse racing has lately been prohibited, the Government, which had at one time au- 

 thorised it in the hope of improving the horse, being convinced that it was productive of 

 more evil than good to the community. A censorship has also been established over the 

 irresponsible newspaper, by requiring the publishers to make a deposit varying in amount 

 with the population of the place where it is published. 



Russia. A new extradition law is one of the features of recent Russian legislation. The 

 new law does not affect the provisions of existing treaties, but lays it down that subsequent 

 treaties must be concluded on the basis of this law. To constitute an extraditable crime, 

 it must be one punishable by imprisonment in both the countries in treaty. Extradition 

 may be granted not only for the crimes enumerated in the treaty but for other crimes. It 

 may be granted where the crime was committed for a political purpose. A Russian subject 

 cannot be extradited. An interesting account of the new copyright law in Russia is given 

 in No. xxvi of the Journal of Comparative Legislation. 



Spain. Spain has been legislating quite in the eugenist spirit for the good of babies, 

 providing for nurse agencies, homes for infants, milk supply, and in the same interest, 

 regulating the work of women and children. It has been establishing a tribunal for the 

 settlement of civil disputes between employers and employees. A usury law has also been 

 passed making void all contracts of loan stipulating for a rate of interest notably higher 

 than the normal value of the money and manifestly disproportionate. 



Switzerland. The new Civil Code has recently come into operation. It is based on the 

 German Civil Code, but with original features of its own. The framers, for example, have 

 preferred to leave much to the Judge, and where the text of the Code fails as a precise guide 

 its spirit is to prevail. In default of this the judge is to be guided by custom or tne rule which 

 he would if legislating have adopted. 



United States. One of the most noticeable features in the United States is the effort to 

 secure uniform legislation among the states. The evils of the existing diversity are notorious 

 and are specially felt in the case of commercial laws. The first of these proposed American 

 uniform Commercial Acts deals with the law of negotiable instruments. Others will be 

 the Sales Act, the Bills of Lading Act, the Uniform Desertion Act. the Uniform Divorce Act 

 the Uniform Boiler Inspection Act. (EDWARD MANSON.) 



THE BRITISH LAW OF ARTISTIC COPYRIGHT 



On July i, 1912, there came into operation an entirely new British Copyright Act. 

 Mr. Sydney Buxton's Imperial Copyright Bill (the general terms of which were given 

 in the article "Copyright" in E. B. vii, 128, 129) became law in 1911. The 

 passing of this Act not only consolidated and amended the British law of Literary Copy- 

 right, on the lines there indicated, but has entirely altered the conditions of Artistic 

 Copyright and repealed the previous Acts dealing with it; the statement of law on that 

 subject as set forth in E. B. vii, 125 et scq. no longer therefore holds good, 

 and we shall state here what the law now is. The changes effected by the Act were 

 very great, the chief being the unification of the law in regard to every branch of the 

 Fine Arts, the abolition of all formalities for securing copyright to the artist such as 

 registration or the signing of works or documents of any kind, the extension of the term 

 of copyright for all forms of art, the inclusion of architecture, and the return of the 

 copyright to the legal representatives of an artist twenty-five years after his death. 



" Scope. The application of the Act extends to the whole of the British Dominions except 

 when specially restricted to the United Kingdom, but to be effective in the self-governing 

 Dominions Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland the legislature 

 of the Dominions must declare the Act to be in force either with or without modifications 

 relating to procedure and remedies which the Dominions are at liberty to make. British 

 possessions which are not self-governing Dominions have the same liberty to modify the Act 

 or to adopt it as it stands. An order in Council may also extend the operation of the Act to 

 Protectorates as Cyprus and to foreign countries. The old law protected all works of 

 art produced in any part of the British Dominions, but it only protected them in the United 

 Kingdom. British works of art appear to have had no protection in the self-governing 

 Dominions and possessions unless under special local provision, or unless, as illustrations to 

 a book, they were protected as being parts of a book under the Literary Copyright Act 

 of 1842, which unlike the Fine Arts Act extended its scope to the British Dominions. 

 Rights. There is copyright in every original work of art, but if the work is published it 



