COPYRIGHT LAW.

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 28, 25 January 1929, Page 6

COPYRIGHT LAW.

JX another portion of this paper we publish a very full summary of thee Report and Recommendations made by Mr. S. G. Raymond, K.C., the representative of New Zealand at the International Copytight Conference held in Rome last year. It will be remembered that Parliament, in order to provide time for the decisions of the Conference to be available for its consideration, passed temporary legislatjon, which will be reviewed during the forthcoming Session of Parliament. It will then be necessary for a more permanent basis to be determined upon. Mr. Raymond's report is a very informative and comprehensive one, and will be the foundation upon which Parliament will consider the question. In his summary of the proceedings of Conference, Mr. Raymond points out that the initial efforts of the Conference to protect in absolute fashion the rights of authors and creators of artistic works have been trenched upon on two separate occasions. The first was in connection with the development of the gramophone industry, when, owing to the unreasonable restrictions imposed upon artistic and musical works by authors, a system of compulsory license was instituted. This has had the effect of securing to the public use of artistic and musical works. Unfortunately radio was not then in existence, and was not foreseen, consequently when radio developed, the same system of compulsory licensed use of musical copyright was not available. In those circumstances, the right to broadcast musical works has been limited and subject to the yea or nay of the musical author. It will be a matter of general agreement that the creator of any musical work shall be rewarded for his genius, but, having regard to the interests of the public to share in musical joy, the opinion has developed that there should be no unreasonable restriction of the right to use musical matter. If the public were prepared to pay a reasonable price for the privilege, then it is held there should be means to secure the general use.of that music. Development of this line of thought was strongly made at the International Copyright Conference by the delegates from Australia and New Zealand, and as an outcome the Conference recognised the right of each individual country to administer in detail the conditions under which the rights of ownership should be exercised. It is thus the determination of Conference that, while preserving the copyright of the author, each individual nation is at liberty to impose rules and regulations by which the

interests of the public in the use of musical matter shall be. preservedy: and provision made for, if necessary, the compulsory use of such matt ter, with adequate payment in return therefor. This is a very important principle, and congratulations are due to the capacity of New Zealand’s representative, which enabled him to strongly represent New Zealand’s point of view at the Conference, and have this point of view recognised. Credit should also be given to the Radio Broadcasting Company, Limited, for its original resistance of the claims made by the copyright owners. Its development of the claims of the public to fair treatment have won for the world recognition of a new principle. — GUGGESTIONS are advanced in the document, which has been pre~ sented already to Parliament, for legislation to deal with the position in New Zealand. These suggestions set out that the existing copyright law, conferring absolute right upon the holders of copyright, needs alteration to meet present-day conditions. It is proposed that these alterations he along the lines of establishing some system compulsory license on the lines of that afforded to gramophone con" panies, and that a competent authority be established to deal with the question of compensation, in default of ready agreement on the pare: of owners of copyright with those desiring to broadcast the music in question. These suggestions will be the basis of New Zealand’s legislation which, it is pointed out, should be uniform with that of Australia.