FINE ARTS COPYRIGHT BILL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5147, 21 September 1877, Page 6

FINE ARTS COPYRIGHT BILL.

Mr. Travers has introduced a Bill which, ifit becomes law, as we‘presume it will, 1 is calculated to be a very useful measure. The preamble states that the authors 1 of paintings, drawings, ‘ engravings, useful arid ornamental' designs, sculptures,'and photographs have nocopyright of their works in New Zealand, and that it°is expedient that the law should in that respect- be’ amended. The Bill provides that authors (being British subjects and resident in the colony) of any of the above-mentioned works shall have a copyright in such “ work of art for life. All copyright under the Act is to he deemed personal estate. Every copyright or subsequent assignment of it is to be registered according to a form provided in a schedule appended to the Bill. Persons in-

fringing copyright under the Act are liable to penalties. Jt is provided that “no person shaU .fraudulently;sign or otherwise affix, or •fraudulently, cause to (be .signed, or otherwise ■affixed, to or upon any work of art any initials or monogram. No person shall fraudulently sell, 1 publish, exhibit, dispose: of, or offer for sale, exhibition, or distribution, any work of art having thereon the name, initials, or monogram of a person who.did not execute,or make such work. No person shall; fraudulently utter, dispose ,ofi •or put, ,off,i.or i cause to be uttered or disposed of, any, copy. or. colorable imitation of. any work of art, whether there shall be subsisting copyright therein or not, as having been made or executed by the . author or maker of the ’ original work . from which such copy or imitations ; shall. have been taken. Where the author or maker of any work of art; made , either before or after the passing of. this Act, shall have sold or otherwise parted with the possession of such work, if any alteration shall afterwards he made therein by any other person by addition or otherwise, no person shall be at liberty during the life of the author or maker of such work, without; his consent, to make or knowingly to sell,or publish or, offer for sale such work or any copies of such work so altered or of any part thereof, as or for the unaltered work of such author or maker.;

And every offender against the provisions of this section shall upon conviction’forfeit to the person, aggrieved a,’-sum not exceeding ten pounds, or not, exceeding, double the full price, if any, at. which all. such copies, engravings, imitations, or ‘altered works, shall have been sold or .offered for sale j and all such copies, engravings, imitations, or altered works shall be forfeited to the person or the assigns or legal representatives of the person whose name, initials, or monogram shall be so fraudulently signed or affixed thereto, or to,.which such fraudulent or altered work shall, be so falsely ascribed ; Provided always that the penalties imposed by this section shall not be incurred unless the person whose - name, initials, or mon gram shall be so fraudulently signed or affixed, or to whom; such spurious or altered work shall be so fraudulently of falsely ascribed, shall have been living at or within seven years next before the, time when the offence may have been committed.

Injunctions may he granted for infringement of copyright. Printed, copies of “ Works of Act’’ are to he forfeited. ■ Nothing in the Act is to affect any remedy which any person aggreived may be entitled to either at law or in equity.