13
North America.
My Lord,
No. 2.
Governor Hill, C.B., to the Earl of Kimberley.-(Received September 5.)
Government House. Newfoundland, cugust 26, 1873.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Circular despatch
of the 29th July,* respecting a draft Bill to amend the "Copyright Act of 1842,” and to transmit herewith the opinion of the Acting Attorney-General, which contains the views of my Responsible Advisers upon this Bill.
I have, &c.
STEPHEN J. HILL.
(Signed)
Inclosure in No. 2.
Sir,
St. John's, August 23, 1873.
I HAVE the honour, in accordance with your Excellency's instructions, to report upon the Circular despatch, with inclosures, relative to tlie operation of the "Imperial Copyright Act of 1842.”
It appears to me that the draft of a Bill to amend the Copyright Act of 1842 has been well considered, and that it has been very carefully framed to meet the various rights of individuals, and to provide against the many difficulties that beset the formation of a law which shall have a general application, and which is designed to meet the reasonable requirements of all the Colonies as well as the proprietors of copyright.
If it were not for the objections raised by the Canadian Executive to the extension of Imperial copyright privileges to Colonial authors unless local publication were first made. I should have thought that the first draft Bill of 1870 would have met the exigencies of
the case.
*
As it is, and having reference to the draft Bill of 1873, I have only to suggest :--
1. The desirability of a consolidation of the whole law of copyright instead of amend- ment only.
2. That the time (twenty years) mentioned in the first part of section 6 may be too short.
3. That it might be preferable to apply the same rules to publication by license as to importation of reprints, and to assimilate the periods.
4. That it might be well to dispense with the necessity of application to Her Majesty in Council (except on appeal) and leave the ordinary Courts of Law to determine in an action for infringement whether suitable provision for circulation had or had not been made. Upon this point I would observe that if a book be not effectively published by the author in any given place after a reasonable time, it will rarely be found either that its publication by others will take place at all, or that its publication or importation will be considered objectionable by the proprietor of the copyright elsewhere; and the necessity for expensive and troublesome proceedings before the Privy Council, to be instituted by the intending publisher, may be calculated to debar useful publications that might other. wise take place.
If the principle of license be adhered to, I would suggest that the mode of obtaining it might be simplified by providing for a notice to the proprietor of the copyright of the intention to publish within a given time, unless the proprietor did so, or unless be granted a license to the intending publisher to do so, in default of which, and on proof of the notice, the Secretary of State or other authority might issue a license.
5. In section 8, providing for importation of foreign reprints, the words are "ought immediately after such first publication to be permitted," &c., I do not see why the provisions of the clause should be so restricted,
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
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885
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