Page:The copyright act, 1911, annotated.djvu/37

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Rights.
11

§1 (3)
EXISTING LAW.

publication of the lecture[1]. It has also been held that a drama or musical work is not published by being publicly performed in a theatre or concert room, since the communication is limited tothose who have paid the price of admission, and that such persons are admitted under an implied contract that they will not make any use of what they hear except for their own entertainment or instruction[2]. The distribution of copies of a work to a limited class, such as the friends of the author or the subscribers to some club or society, is not a publication[3]. Neither is there a publication if each individual member of the public to whom the work is delivered undertakes expressly or impliedly not to publish, but to keep the work for his own private use only[4].

The International Copyright Act, 1844, s. 19, provides that the author of any work first published out of the British dominions shall have no copyright or performing right otherwise than such as he may be entitled to under the International Copyright Acts. Under this provision it has been held that an otherwise unpublished play which was first performed outside the British dominions was "first published" out of the British dominions within the meaning of the section and that the performing right in this country was lost[5]. These decisions, however, do not appear to affect the question as to whether public performance of a play does or does not divest the common law right.

Investitive publication depends on the terms of the different statutes. A literary work must be published in the form of a book as defined by the Copyright Act, 1842[6]. Engravings and sculpture acquire copyright upon publication, provided the name of the author and date is placed upon every copy published[7]. Paintings, drawings and photographs acquire statutory copyright although unpublished[8]. It is still a moot point whether or not public performance of a play or music is a condition precedent to statutory performing right. Probably it is not, and such rights run from first composition of the play or music and are independent of publication or public performance[9].


  1. Abernethy v. Hutchinson (1825), 3 L. J. (O. S.) Ch. 309; Caird v. Sime (1887), 12 A. C. 326; Nicols v. Pitman (1884), 26 Ch. D. 374.
  2. Macklin v. Richardson (1770), Amb. 694; D'Almaine v. Boosey (1835), 1 Y. & C. Ex. 288, 299. But see Boucicault v. Chatterton (1876), 5 Ch. D. 267.
  3. Kenrick v. Danube Collieries (1891), 39 W. R. 473; Prince Albert v. Strange (1849), 2 De G. & Sm. 652.
  4. Exchange Telegraph v. Gregory, [1896] 1 Q. B. 147; Exchange Telegraph v. Central News, [1897] 2 Ch. 48.
  5. Boucicault v. Chatterton (1876), 5 Ch. D. 267; Boucicault v. Delafield (1863), 1 H. & M. 597.
  6. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, ss. 2, 3.
  7. 8 Geo. II. c. 13, s. 1; 51 Geo. III. c. 56, s. 1.
  8. Mansell v. Valley Printing Co., [1908] 2 Ch. 441.
  9. Hardacre v. Armstrong (1905), 21 T. L. R. 189; Reichardt v. Sapte, [1893] 2 Q. B. 308.