15 Geo. 3, c. 53. Title. An Act for the encouragement of An Act to amend and render more An Act for enabling the two Uni- Short Title. The Engraving Copyright Act, 1734 The Engraving Copyright Act, 1766. The Copyright Act, 1775. Provision as to damages. THE COPYRIGHT (MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS) ACT, 1888. 51 & 52 VICT. C. 17. An Act to amend the Law relating to the Recovery of Penalties for the unauthorised Performance of Copyright Musical Compositions. [5th July 1888.] WHEREAS it is expedient to further amend the law relating to copyright in musical compositions, and to further protect the public from vexatious proceedings for the recovery of penalties for the unauthorised performance of the same: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: I. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Act of the session held in the third and fourth years of His Majesty King William the Fourth, chapter fifteen, to amend the laws relating to dramatic literary property, or any other Act in which those provisions are incorporated, the penalty or damages to be awarded upon any action or proceedings in respect of each and every unauthorised representation or performance of any musical composition, whether published before or after the passing of this Act, shall be such a sum or sums as shall, in the discretion of the Court or judge before whom such action or proceedings shall be tried, be reasonable, and the Court or judge before whom such action or proceedings shall be tried may award a less sum than forty shillings in respect of each and every such unauthorised representation or performance as aforesaid, or a nominal penalty or nominal damages as the justice of the case may require. tion of II. The costs of all such actions or proceedings as aforesaid shall be Costs to be in the absolute discretion of the judge before whom such actions and in discreproceedings shall be tried, and section four of the Copyright (Musical judge. Compositions) Act, 1882, is hereby repealed. 45 & 46 Vict. c. 40. III. The proprietor, tenant, or occupier of any place of dramatic Proprietor entertainment, or other place at which any unauthorised representation not wilfully permitting or performance of any musical composition, whether published before or such perafter the passing of this Act, shall take place, shall not by reason of such formance representation or performance be liable to any penalty or damages in to be respect thereof, unless he shall wilfully cause or permit such unauthorised representation or performance, knowing it to be unauthorised.1 IV. The provisions of this Act shall not apply to any action or proceedings in respect of a representation or performance of any opera or stage play in any theatre or other place of public entertainment duly licensed in that respect. exempt. Saving for operas and plays. V. This Act may be cited as the Copyright (Musical Compositions) Short title. Act, 1888. THE REVENUE ACT, 1889. 52 & 53 VICT. C. 42. I. The following goods shall from and after the passing of this Act be included amongst the goods enumerated and described on the table of prohibitions and restrictions contained in Section 42 of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, namely: Books, first published in any country or state other than the United Kingdom, wherein under the International Copyright Act, 1886, or any other Act or any Order in Council made under the authority of any Act, there is a subsisting Copyright in the United Kingdom, printed or reprinted in any country or state other than the country or state in which they were first published,2 and as to which the owner of the copyright or his agent in the United Kingdom has given to the Commissioners of Customs in the manner prescribed by Section 44 of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876, a notice in such form and giving such particulars as those Commissioners require, and accompanied by a declaration as provided in that Section. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS THE BERNE CONVENTION, 1886. ARTICLE I. The Contracting States are constituted into an Union for the protection of the rights of authors over their literary and artistic works. ARTICLE II. Authors of any of the countries of the Union, or their lawful representatives, shall enjoy in the other countries for their works, whether published in one of those countries or unpublished, the rights which the respective laws do now or may hereafter grant to natives.1 The enjoyment of these rights is subject to the accomplishment of the conditions and formalities described by law in the country of origin of the work, and cannot exceed in the other countries the term of protection granted in the said country of origin. The country of origin of the work is that in which the work is first published, or if such publication takes place simultaneously in several countries of the Union, that one of them in which the shortest term of protection is granted by law. For unpublished works the country to which the author belongs is considered the country of origin of the work. ARTICLE III. The stipulations of the present Convention apply equally to the publishers of literary and artistic works published in one of the countries of the Union, but of which the authors belong to a country which is not a party to the Union. ARTICLE IV. The expression "literary and artistic works" comprehends books, pamphlets, and all other writings; dramatic or dramatico-musical works, musical compositions with or without words; works of design, painting, sculpture, and engraving; lithographs, illustrations, geographical charts; plans, sketches, and plastic works relative to geography, topography, architecture, or science in general; in fact, every production whatsoever in the literary, scientific, or artistic domain which can be published by any mode of impression or reproduction. ARTICLE V. Authors of any of the countries of the Union, or their lawful representatives, shall enjoy in the other countries the exclusive right of making or authorising the translation of their works until the expiration of ten years from the publication of the original work in one of the countries of the Union. For works published in incomplete parts ("livraisons") the period of ten years commences from the date of publication of the last part of the original work. For works composed of several volumes published at intervals, as well as for bulletins or collections ("cahiers ") published by literary or scientific Societies, or by private persons, each volume, bulletin, or collection is, with regard to the period of ten years, considered as a separate work. In the cases provided for by the present Article, and for the calculation of the period of protection, the 31st December of the year in which the work was published is admitted as the date of publication. 1 Those portions of the Convention printed in italics have been altered by the Additional Act of Paris, 1896. Norway, although a signatory of the Convention, has not acceded to the Additional Act. |