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COPYRIGHT

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 118 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COPYRIGHT , in See also:

law, the right, belonging exclusively to the author or his assignees, of multiplying for See also:sale copies of an See also:original See also:work or See also:composition, in literature or See also:art. As a recognized See also:form of See also:property it is, compared with others, of See also:recent origin, being in fact, in the use of See also:literary See also:works, mainly the result of the facility for multiplying copies created by the See also:discovery of See also:printing. It is with copyright in literary compositions that we are here primarily concerned, as it was established first, the analogous right as regards works of plastic art, &c., following in its See also:train. 1. Whether copyright was recognized at all by the See also:common Iaw of See also:England was See also:long a much debated legal question. See also:Black-See also:stone thinks that this See also:species of property, being grounded on labour and invention, is more properly reducible to the See also:head of occupancy than any other, since the right of occupancy itself is supposed by Mr See also:Locke and many others to be founded on the See also:personal labour of the occupant." But he speaks doubtfully of its existence—merely mentioning the opposing views, " that on the one See also:hand it hath been thought no other See also:man can have a right to exhibit the author's work without his consent, and that it is urged on the other hand that the right is of too subtle and unsubstantial a nature to become the subject of property at the common law, and only capable of being guarded by See also:positive statutes and See also:special provisions of the See also:magistrate." He notices that the See also:Roman law adjudged that if one man wrote anything on the See also:paper or See also:parchment of another, the See also:writing should belong to the owner of the See also:blank materials, but as to any other property in the works of the understanding the law is silent, and he adds that" neither with us in England See also:bath there been (till very lately) any final determination upon the rights of authors at the common law." The common law undoubtedly gives a right to restrain the publication of unpublished compositions; but when a work is once published, its See also:protection depends on the statutes regulating copyright. The leading See also:case on the subject of unpublished works is See also:Prince See also:Albert v. See also:Strange (1849), 2 De G. & Sm. 652. Copies of etchings by See also:Queen See also:Victoria and Prince Albert, which had been lithographed for private circulation, See also:fell into the hands of the See also:defendant, a See also:London publisher, who proposed to exhibit them, and issued a See also:catalogue entitled A Descriptive Catalogue of the Royal Victoria and Albert See also:Gallery of Etchings. The See also:court of See also:chancery restrained the publication of the catalogue, holdingthat property in See also:mechanical works, or works of art, does certainly subsist, and is invaded, before publication, not only by copying but by description or catalogue.

This protection includes See also:

news (See also:Exchange See also:Telegraph Co. v. Central News, 1897). As a See also:matter of principle, the nature of copyright itself, and the reasons why it should be recognized in law, have, as already stated, been the subject of See also:bitter dispute. It was Ntr attacked as constituting a See also:monopoly, and it has been right. of right. argued that copyright should be looked upon as a doubtful exception to the See also:general law regulating See also:trade, and should be strictly limited in point of duration. On the other hand, it is claimed that copyright, being in the nature of personal property, should be perpetual. A man's own work, in this view, is as much his as his See also:house or his See also:money, and should be protected by the See also:state. Historically, and in legal See also:definition, there would appear to be no doubt that copyright, as regulated by See also:statute, is strictly a monopoly. The See also:parliamentary protection of works of art for the See also:period of fourteen years by an See also:act of 1709 and later statutes appears, as See also:Blackstone points out, to have been suggested by the exception in the Statute of Monopolies 1623. The See also:object of that statute was to suppress the royal grants of exclusive right to trade in certain articles, and to reassert in relation to all such monopolies the common law of the See also:land. Certain exceptions were made on grounds of public policy, and among others it was allowed that a royal patent of See also:privilege might be granted for fourteen years " to any inventor of a new manufacture for the See also:sole working or making of the same." Copyright, like patent right, would be covered by the legal definition of a monopoly. It is a See also:mere right to prevent other See also:people from manufacturing certain articles.

But objections to monopolies in general do not apply to this particular class of cases, in which the author of a new work in literature or art has the right of preventing others from manufacturing copies thereof and selling them to the public. The rights of persons licensed to sell See also:

spirits, to hold theatrical exhibitions, &c., are also of the nature of monopolies, and may be defended on special grounds of public policy. The monopoly of authors and inventors rests on the general sentiment underlying all civilized law, that a man should be protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of his own labour.

End of Article: COPYRIGHT

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COQUELIN, BENOIT CONSTANT (1841-1909)

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