COPYRIGHT

Hokitika Guardian, 30 September 1932, Page 8

COPYRIGHT

CONDITIONS AND USES. ADDRESS GIVEN TO STUDENTS. CHKISTCHUBCH, September 26. ‘Tiie author of any literary work has, .apart from any statutory provisions, certain common law 'rights ~n this work,” said Mr. C. E. W. Waqher, addressing the Canterbury College Engineering Society on the; subject of '“Copyright” r on SaturdayL'night. “He has first .of all , a proprietary right, iWhujh entitles him to regard the work as his own property. He may .do what lie i likes with it, juist ae with bis hat or his house, and this right -includes the right of not publishing it, and of preventing' others from pub’ishing it.” .. In the second place, continued the •speaker, there was the right acquired .tier, and ,as the result of publication and by virtue Of law, w'hich ■was known ag. “copyright. ” i The two right's of -property before publication nnd copyright after, were separate and 'distinct,. Betters were subject to these rights and the writer might restrain publication of the contents, though the property ,in/the actual paper on which the letter was written, passed to the receiver.-'..

Copyright - existed for the statutory period for the benefit of the author of apy book published during hie lifetime, or.'of 'the: person to whom he assigned these, rights, and the period ran from the date of publication. Copyright might be sold, given, 1 " bequeathed, or mortgaged, and generally dealt with as property.

PUBLICATION CONDITIONS. Actual 'gale of a book was not neces'ary for 'publication, as it might be rtily offered for sale or even distributed u’ee.' 1' e delivery of a lecture was lublica-tion. and public performance in the cais? of a musical •or. dramatic wOfk. On tl'9 other hand, a lecture to pupils or private circu’.ation of a book among was not sufficient publication to •et the statutory period running. The definition of copyright in the New -Zealand Act'was the sole right to produce or reproduce a work or a s"bstnntial- part of it in any materia) form whatever. In included the right of reproduction in respect of traiislations) and the right to make recordand films, and conversion into dramatic or other literary forms.

The period for. whid’i a copyright of p work first published extends wat? in Now Zealand the life of th e authoi, and 50 years after, or 50 years from th. death of the author, provided that it was not an infringement if, after 25 years from the death of the author., a person gave notice to the owner of the copyright of 'his intention to reproduce ..the . woj’k, and , paid ,a royalty of 10 per veut. on all copies so reproduced. At the end of the same period there was flso . fcompulsory reversion, of the ’opyright to the personal representatives of the author International ai> rangements brought into existence by the Berne Convention, of 1886, existed for protection, of authors. In the case pf first •p t,^'ca t‘on in one of the countries party to the Convention British Copyright waß limited to t'he period allowed by the law of that country.

NEW ZEALAND LAW. , In : New Zealand there was no copyright fexcept as provided by statute. The Act gave • copyright in every original literary, dramatic,'musical, and artistic work if in the case -of a published .work the work was first published in New'Zealand; if' in-th e case of an unpublished- work the author was, at the date of making ,the work, a subject or resident l in New Zealand ; otherwise only Where protection was extended by the Governor-General . In New Zealand -no formalities were necessary to the acquisition of a copyright of patent registered trade-marks. Registration was: possible, ' however, and conferred certain additional rights and the advantage of the summary remedies set out in the Act.

Copyright was not intended to protect ideas, opinions, schemes, principles, or methods. These might be considered as existing all the time, and waiting to be expounded. But the literary form of expression which the law ot copyright protects. The title of a* book could only be'copyright if in form and language it constituted a, literary composition of 'the author, and similarly with th- name 1 of a newspaper or a nom-de.plume; There was no copyright for books 'unfit for use because ot their immoral, blasphemous, or seditious nature.