A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Copyright
COPYRIGHT. The statutes regulating copyright in music are 3, 4 Will. IV, c. 15; 5, 6 Vict. c. 45; and 7, 8 Vict. c. 12; and their joint effect is, that the composer, or the person to whom he transfers his interest, has an exclusive right to publish or give performances of the work during the lifetime of the composer and seven years afterwards, and also during the period of forty-two years from the publication or first performance of the work. The copyright proprietorship of a British composer in his work is complete from the moment of composition; but for purposes of public convenience a register is kept at Stationer's Hall, at which the title, date, and proprietorship of any work may be officially entered: and although such entry is not necessary to give the composer the copyrigut of his work, and, without making any such entry, an action can be brought against any person performing the work without written permission, yet no action can be brought against anyone publishing the work until the entry has been made. A similar entry should be made whenever the copyright changes hands. Such transfer may also be made by writing, and in this case the exact nature of the rights transferred will be collected from the document; but if the transfer is evidenced by registration alone, an entry of the transfer of the copyright will be taken to prove no more than the transfer of the right of publication, and the right of performance will remain with the transferor. If therefore the latter right is intended to pass, a written contract should be made to this effect. To obtain the full benefit of the English law, even for British subjects, the first publication or performance must take place in the United Kingdom; if it takes place abroad, the work is in every respect considered as foreign, although the author be a British subject. An arrangement for the piano of a work written for other instruments has not hitherto been considered as an infringement of the copyright of the latter; but the cases do not go so far as to prove that any bare transcription of the score to pianoforte staves would necessarily escape with impunity. The amount of change constituting a really new work cannot be expressed in any general rule; each case is determined on its merits.
We now pass to works composed by foreigners, or first published or performed abroad. There is no doubt that a foreigner, by residing in England at the time of publication or first performance, may place his work in every respect under British law; but it has hitherto been held that for this purpose residence in Great Britain at the time of publication is indispensable. It is doubtful whether, under the Aliens Act of 1870, this is still so; but the short residence necessary is a less evil than the chance of expensive litigation. If a foreigner sell to a British subject his work while still unpublished and still unperformed, the purchaser has full English copyright property in the work, just as if he had written it himself. But a work first published or performed abroad can only obtain protection in England, when a treaty exists between this country and the country where the work is produced, creating reciprocal copyright interests. Such treaties exist between this country and France, Prussia, and some other German states, Belgium, Spain, and Italy. There is no copyright treaty with the United States, nor with Austria, Russia, Norway, or Sweden. The Act 7 and 8 Vict. c. 12, upon which international copyright rests, requires that every Order in Council granting copyright privileges to foreigners shall prescribe a time within which the work shall be registered at Stationers' Hall. Registration therefore, as concerns foreign productions, is of the utmost importance. Not only is it necessary, as in the case of English works, that entry shall be made before legal proceedings can be commenced against an unlicensed publication; but, unless the work be registered at Stationers' Hall, no protection can at any future time be obtained for it. The period within which a work must be registered is specified in the Order of Council announcing in the London Gazette the terms of each copyright treaty when made; and the terms may vary in every treaty. Foreign musicians who contemplate introducing their works into England ought therefore to consult a qualified adviser immediately upon the completion of their work; or, for want of this precaution, they may find their productions public property at the moment that they might have become remunerative. The opera of 'Faust' has experienced this fate; not having been registered within the three months specified in the Order of Council, its performance is open to all Her Majesty's subjects.
[App. p.597 "COPYRIGHT. The following changes have been made since the publication of the first volume:—
1. Domestic copyright. Certain speculators having bought up the copyright of popular songs with the object of levying penalties upon persons innocently singing them at charitable concerts and penny readings, an Act was passed in 1882 providing that the proprietor of any musical composition who shall be desirous of retaining in his own hands exclusively the right of public performance or representation of the same shall cause to be printed upon the title-page of every published copy a notice that this right is reserved.
2. International Copyright. By the Convention of Berne, executed Sept. 9, 1886, the following States entered into an International Copyright Union:—Great Britain (including all the Colonies), Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Haiti, Italy, Liberia, Switzerland, Tunis. This treaty will supersede all existing copyright-agreements between Great Britain and the States enumerated. The second article of the treaty is as follows:—'Authors of any of the countries of the Union shall enjoy in the other countries for the works, whether published in one of those countries or unpublished, the rights which the respective laws do now or may hereafter grant to natives.' The term of protection is not, however, in any case to exceed in length the term of protection in the country of origin. Thus, a German who has complied with the formalities and conditions required for copyright in Germany, will possess, in England, the same copyright privileges in his work as an Englishman; but these will not last longer than the term of protection which the law of his own country gives to his work. It is expressly stated that Article ii. applies to the public representation of dramatic or drnmatico-musical works, and to the public performance of unpublished musical works, and of published musical works in which the author has declared on the title-page that he forbids the public performance."]