firm having a place of business or a branch within the Empire.
German
foreign
relations
Germany was a party to the Berne convention and to the Paris acts, and ratified July 12,1910, the Berlin convention. This ratification was made possible by an act of May 22, 1910, modifying domestic copyright to conform with the provisions of the Berlin convention, and incidentally repealing and replacing sec. 22 of the law of 1901, regarding mechanical music reproduction, as fully stated in the chapter on that subject. On July 12, 1910, the Emperor promulgated an ordinance providing for the application of the law, and both the Berlin convention and this new law became effective September 9, 1910.
Germany has treaties outside the Union with Austria-Hungary (1899), has special treaties beyond the provisions of the Union on the "most favored nation" basis, made in 1907 with Belgium, France, and Italy, and has been a "proclaimed" country in reciprocal relations with the United States since January 15, 1892. By proclamation of Decembers, 1910, reciprocal relations as to mechanical music reproductions were also proclaimed between Germany and the United States.
Austria-
Hungary
In Austria-Hungary, the dual states of that empire have separate copyright as well as other legislative relations. Austrian domestic copyright is based on the law of 1895, as amended by that of 1907, and Hungarian on the law of 1884. Copyright in Austria is dependent on publication within the country and citizenship or reciprocal relations; in Hungary on publication by a Hungarian publisher and two years' residence in the case of foreign authors whose country is not in reciprocal relations. In Austria the general term is for life and thirty years, in Hungary life and fifty years, or for corporate, anonymous and like
