THE COPYRIGHT BILL.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14204, 18 November 1911, Page 9

THE COPYRIGHT BILL.

The Copyright Bill passed through the committee stages in tho House cf Lords without serious amendment.

Th<» Hill, which is a consolidating and amending measure, covering a wry extensive iicid, was introduced in tho House , of Commons in April. iSorious objection was -taken to 'the fourth ciau.se, •which provided that after tho drain of an aiulior a representation could b* made to the Comptroller-General of Patents that tho writer's woi-k was being withheld from the public and Kayo to the olTicial tho right to order tho owner of the copyright to grant a license for the reproduction of the book or play. Tho President of tho Board of Trade, in moving the second reading, said his object was to sweep away anachronisms and anomalies and to reduce chaos to order. It was desirable that a uniformity of copyright law should bo established, as far as it was possible, throughout the Empire, and. in addition, it was important to carry out 'ho recommendations of tho Berlin Oon\ention of 180S, so that the domestic lows of different countries might be harmonised. Tho Bill enumerated tho works to which cops'right would extend, and among them wore works which had been excluded up to now— translations, lectures, original adaptations and arrangements, works of artistic merit, and architectural works. The treatment given to lectures would also be given to speeches. T>ramatised novels and "novelised" dramas, and collective works like encyclopedias, would be safeguarded against unauthorised reproduction, and musical works would be protected against unsanctioned reproduction by mechanical means.