COPYRIGHT.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13363, 3 March 1909, Page 7

COPYRIGHT.

AUSTRALIAN LEGISLATION CRITICISED.

United Press As«oci«tio<:—By Electric Telojjrapli—Copyright. LONDON, March 1. Lord Tennyson, delegate for tho Commonwealth to tho International Copyright Conference, stat-es that the provisions of the Australian Act requir- ' ing the registration of foreign works and, possibly, their manufacture in j Australia, is essentially opposed to tho j new International Convention, and is a j moro irritating formality, depriving t many works of the copyright to which otherwise they would bo entitled. It must bo abandoned before Australia can become a member of tho International Union. Prior to the establishment of the Federation, the copyright legislation enacted by all the States except Tasmania wes based, upon and closely folj lowed the English law of copyright, differing, however, in some cases therefrom as to the periods for which copyj right w.is granted. Only local publica- | tions were affected by it. A colonial law did not affect the rights of authors ! and artists where copyrights were cc- : quired outside tho colony. The Imperial Statutes governed copyright in those colonies which had not passed a local copyright law. The principal feature of the Federal Act passed in 1905 is that it provides the same term of | copyright and performing right for various kinds of publications, namely, tho life of tho author and seven years thereafter, or forty-two years irom publication, whichever bo the longer. Every book published in Australia for which copyright is claimed must be printed from type set up or from plates and negatives made in Australia. The owner of tho copyright in a book may be compelled :to translate it, or permit translation, :if it be* not translated within 10 years , of publication.