PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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TLC.O.885
سانس
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Forming the best judgment we can we answer the questions as follows:-
(a) Clauses 2 (a) and 42 (a) show that there is no enforceable contract in respect of the extension between Blantyre and Lake Nyasa in the absence of agreement by the Government as to time, terms, conditions, and consideration. There is no provision for settling these outstanding points if the Government do not agree and, in the absence of such agreement, there is no enforceable contract as to such extension. (b) Since the Government are under no obligation to agree the matters above mentioned the Company has no right of action against them because they do not.
(c) No. (a) There is no enforceable agreement as to the Blantyre Lake Nyasa exten- sion and if such agreement be subsequently made there is no obligation on the Government to include as one of its terms the grant of any subsidy lands.
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(e) The first period of five years referred to in Clause 14 of the principal contract begins to run from the date of the completion of the Port Herald-Chiromo Railway in accordance with the contract. This date is not necessarily determined by ascertaining when the railway was first opened for public traffic. It is a question of fact and does not appear to us to be concluded by the certificates to which reference is made.
(We have nothing to add, except that the above answers are necessarily
uncertain, for the reasons indicated in the first sentence of this report.
Law Officers' Department,
23rd December, 1913.
JOHN SIMON.
STANLEY O. BUCKMASTER.
A
8383/14
No. 169.
(DOMINIONS.)
LAW OFFICERS to BOARD OF TRADE.
[Copyright Royalty System (Mechanical Musical Instruments) Regulations, 1912.]
OPINION OF the Law Officers of the Crown and MR. G. A. H. BRANSON.
1. In our opinion the maker in the United Kingdom of a record which is made in compliance with Section 19 of the Act, and which has consequently paid the royalty made payable by the Act to the British owner of the copyright, is now required to pay the royalty over again in any other part of His Majesty's dominions to any other owner: The owner of the copyright" in Section 19 (2) means, in the case where there are different owners in different parts of the Empire, the owner in that part in which the record is made.
"
The only difficulty in upholding this view is that Section 2 (2) (d) of the Copy- right Act provides that copyright in a work shall be deemed to be infringed by any person who imports for sale or hire into any part of His Majesty's dominions to which this Act extends any work which to his knowledge infringes copyright, or would infringe copyright if it had been made within the part of His Majesty's dominions into which the importation takes place. At first sight, therefore, it might be argued that the importation into Australia of a record which has been made in the United Kingdom involves an infringement of copyright there, because if the record had been made in Australia it should have paid royalty to the Australian owner, which it has not, in fact, done. But, when Section 2 (2) (d) directs the hypothesis to be made that the record had been made in Australia, the hypothesis must, we think, go to the length of assuming that analogous steps had been taken in the United Kingdom. The hypothesis in Section 2 (2) (d) is really directed against the importa- tion into a country where the Copyright Act applies of pirated copies made without observing the Copyright Act at all. And, in the case supposed, the record, if it had been made within Australia, would not infringe copyright, because if it had been made in Australia instead of the United Kingdom the maker would bave paid royalties to the Australian owner instead of to the British owner.
2. The right of the owner to receive royalty depends upon the statute and not upon the regulations, and if, contrary to our opinion, the statute provides for pay- ment twice over in the case mentioned its effect cannot be altered by regulation."
We have nothing to add.
JOHN SIMON. STANLEY O. BUCKMASTER. G. A. H. BRANSON.
24th December, 1913.
Law Officers' Department,
(972-2.) Wt. 124-872, 25, 4/14. D&A. G. 1.
16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO