RECORDS AND COPYRIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 283, 28 November 1921, Page 5

RECORDS AND COPYRIGHT.

INFRINGEMENT ON A DISC. (Received D..10 a.m.) n SYDNEY, this day. Mr. Justice Harvey gave an important judgment in the case of Albert, music publisher, against the Hoffnnng Co., for alleged breach of copyright. Plaintiff claimed the ownership of the copyright in Australia and New Zealand of the song, "My Own lona." It was alleged that defendants imported and sold gramophone records of the song in contravention of the plaintiff's right to make or imyort such records, and the firm asked that an order restraining defendants from infringing the copyright or importing records into Australasia without his consent be issued. Defendants did not deny the importation or sale of records which were made under the British Copyright Act, and acquired by them in the ordinary course of trade, and that the British Act justified their action as far as records were concerned.

Mr. Justice Harvey ruled that despite the provision of tlie British Act, the importation or making here or the sale of these, records in Australasia would be an infringement of the copyright, unless notice had been given to plaintiff and royalties paid to him. He held that the gramophone records were, clearly copies, within the meaning of the Copyright Act. In the case of double-sided records, if inseparable, he ordered them to be handed over to plaintiff within three weeks, plaintiff to obliterate the record on the reverse side. The operation of the judge's decree was suspended for three weeks. The case is the first of the kind where the legality of copyright as affecting the importation of phonogTaph or other mechanical records from the United Kingdom into a selfgoverning Dominion has been raised. — (A. and >\Z. Cable.)