COPYRIGHT. 



225 



ing to the law as judicially expounded, this is 

 not piratical unless the author has dramatized 

 his own production hefore publishing it as a 

 novel; and to do this is the only remedy 

 against unauthorized dramatizations. Refer- 

 ring to the common practice of turning novels 

 into plays without the consent of the authors, 

 the Commissioners say : " Stories have been 

 written in a form adapted to stage representa- 

 tion almost without change. Sometimes cer- 

 tain parts and passages of novels are put bodily 

 into the play, while the bulk of the play is 

 original matter; and at other times the plot 

 of the novel is taken as the basis of a play, the 

 dialogue being altogether original. Whatever 

 may be the precise form of the dramatization, 

 the practice has given rise to much complaint, 

 and considerable loss, both in money and repu- 

 tation, is alleged to have been inflicted upon 

 novelists. The author's pecuniary injury con- 

 sists in his failing to obtain the profit he might 

 receive if dramatization could not take place 

 without his consent. He may be injured in 

 reputation if an erroneous impression is given 

 of his book. In addition to these complaints, 

 it has been pressed upon us thafc it is only just 

 that an author should be entitled to the full 

 amount of profit which he can derive from his 

 own creation; that the product of a man's 

 brain ought to be his own for all purposes; 

 and that it is unjust, when he has expended his 

 invention and labor in the composition of a 

 story, that another man should be able to reap 

 part of the harvest." After weighing these 

 considerations, and those which were advanced 

 on the other side, the Commissioners came to 

 the conclusion that the right of dramatizing a 

 novel or other work should be reserved to the 

 author. 



Under the law as it now is, a British author, 

 in order to secure copyright, must first publish 

 his work in the United Kingdom. If he pub- 

 lish in a foreign country, or even in a British 

 colony, before publishing at home, he forfeits 

 his title to English copyright. The Commis- 

 sioners recommend that the law be so modified 

 that when a work is first given to the public 

 in any possession of the Crown, the author 

 shall be entitled to the same privileges as when 

 the first publication takes place in Great Brit- 

 ain ; and that a British author who first pub- 

 lishes abroad may secure all his rights in Eng- 

 land by republishing there within three years 

 after the foreign publication. 



. The Commissioners find that " in some im- 

 portant respects the state of the present copy- 

 right law, as regards the colonies, is anoma- 

 lous and unsatisfactory." The copyright law 

 passed in 1842 protects works throughout the 

 British dominions; but in 184V the "Foreign 

 Reprints Act" was passed, providing that if 

 any colonial Legislature should make satisfac- 

 tory provision for the protection and remuner- 

 ation of the British author, foreign reprints of 

 English copyrighted works might be imported 

 into the colony. In several colonies there was 

 VOL. xvin. 15 A 



legislation for this purpose. The provision 

 made by the Canadian Legislature was that 

 American reprints of English copyrighted works 

 might be imported into the colony on payment 

 of a customs duty of 12 per cent., which was 

 to be collected by the Canadian Government 

 and paid to the British Government for the 

 benefit of the authors interested. Like pro- 

 visions were made in other colonies. Of the 

 operation of these laws, and the effect of the 

 Foreign Reprints Act, the Commissioners say : 

 " So far as British authors and owners of copy- 

 right are concerned, the act has proved a 

 complete failure. Foreign reprints of copy- 

 right works have been largely introduced into 

 the colonies, and notably American reprints 

 into the Dominion of Canada ; but no returns, 

 or returns of an absurdly small amount, have 

 been made to the authors and owners. It ap- 

 pears from official reports that during the ten 

 years ending in 1876, the amount received 

 from the whole of the nineteen colonies which 

 have taken advantage of the act was only 

 1,155 13. 2K, of which 1,084 13s. 3Jd. 

 was received from Canada ; and that of these 

 colonies seven paid nothing whatever to the 

 authors, while six now and then paid small 

 sums amounting to a few shillings." In 1875 

 an act was passed by the Dominion Parlia- 

 ment which secures copyright for twenty-eight 

 years to any author domiciled in Canada, or in 

 any part of the British dominions, or who is a 

 citizen of any country having an internation- 

 al copyright treaty with Canada. The work 

 must be published or republished in Canada. 

 The Commissioners do not propose to interfere 

 with this law. They recommend that the 

 difficulty of securing a supply of English litera- 

 ture at cheap prices for colonial readers be met 

 in two ways: first, by the introduction of a 

 licensing system in the colonies; second, by 

 continuing, though with alterations, the pro- 

 visions of the Foreign Reprints Act. In pro- 

 posing the introduction of a licensing system, 

 it is not intended to interfere with the power 

 now possessed by the colonial Legislatures of 

 dealing with the subject of copyright so far as 

 their own colonies are concerned. The Com- 

 missioners recommend that in case the owner 

 of a copyright work should not avail himself 

 of the provisions of the copyright law (if any) 

 in a colony, and in case no adequate provision 

 be made by republication in the colony or 

 otherwise, within a reasonable time after pub- 

 lication elsewhere, for a supply of the work 

 sufficient for general sale and circulation in 

 the colony, a license may upon application be 

 granted to republish the work in the colony, 

 subject to a royalty in favor of the copyright- 

 owner of not less than a specified sum per cent, 

 on the retail price, as may be settled by any 

 local law. It is also suggested that effective 

 provision for the due collection and transmis- 

 sion to the copyright-owner of such royalty 

 should be made by the law. 

 The subject of international copyright re- 



