A QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1921, Page 5

A QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT.

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn —Copyright. Sydney, Nov. 28. Mr. Justice Harvey gave an important judgment in the case of Albert, music publisher, against Hoffnung and Co., for alleged breach of copyright. Plaintiff claimed the ownership of the copyright in Australia and New Zealand of the song, “My Own I6na”, and it was alleged that defendants imported and sold gramaphone records of the song in contravention of plaintiff’s right to make or import such records. It was asked that an order should be issued restraining defendants from infringing the copyright or importing records into Australasia without his consent. Defendants did not deny the importation or sale of records, which were made under the British Copyright Act and acquired by them in the ordinary course of trade, and alleged that the British Act justified their action as far as records were concerned. Mr. Justice Harvey ruled that, despite the provisions of th® British Act, the importation of and the making here for sale of these records in Australasia would be an infringement of the copyright unless notice had been given plaintiff and royalties paid him. He held that gramaphone records were clearly copies within the meaning of the Copyright. Act. In the case of doublesided records, if inseparable, he ordered them to be handed over to plaintiff within three weeks, plaintiff to obliterate the record on the reverse side. The operation of the judge’s decree was suspended for three weeks.

The case is the first of the kind where the legality of copyright as affecting importation of gramaphone and other mechanical records from the United Kingdom into a self-governing Dominion has been raised.