Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/342

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3IO COPYRIGHT

1909 did not relieve the Patent Office of this duty, and it is still required to register all prints which have heretofore been registered therein under the act of June 18, 1874, and in the same manner as they have heretofore been registered.

Many of the features of the Copyright Office, such as the forms for applications, certificates, etc., have been treated in detail in the chapter on formalities, which should be read in connection with this chapter. Foreign In Great Britain there is no official copyright office,

practice j^^^ registration has been made at Stationers' Hall in charge of the Stationers' Company, a quasi public institution, while deposit is made primarily in the national library at the British Museum. The records at Stationers' Hall and the printed or other cata- logues of the British Museum are public. But there is no printed copyright list except of prohibitions of importations issued by the Commissioners of Cus- toms. Under the new British measure there is no reg- istration at Stationers' Hall or elsewhere.

In France there is no copyright office proper and the deposit copies required from the printer are de- posited with the Ministry of the Interior at Paris or at the Prefecture or town clerk's office in the pro- vinces. In other European countries, the registration, when required, is made for the most part in one of the government departments, as Ministry of Interior, De- partment of Agriculture, etc. In Italy, as in several Spanish- American countries, the registry is provincial instead of central, though in some of these countries provision is made for report from time to time to a central government office. In few countries is there a copyright office proper, distinctively organized and named, except in certain English colonies, as Australia and Canada, which have now a copyright office and a Registrar of Copyrights.