ALLEGED BREACH OF COPYRIGHT

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29058, 21 November 1959, Page 15

ALLEGED BREACH OF COPYRIGHT

Decision Against Complainant Mr N M. Izard, S.M., found against the plaintiff in a reserved decision on a claim by the British Stamp Bureau, Ltd. (Mr J. Hutchison), for £l5O damages for alleged breach of copyright by R. Savil, trading as the New Zealand Stamp Company (Mr S. R. Dacre). The action arose out of the publication, by Savil, of a third edition of a work called “The Kiwi Catalogue,” which had been published in the first and second editions by the British Stamp Bureau.

The Magistrate said in his judgment that Savil, as the compiler of the catalogue, was the author of the work and the owner of the copyright. He could not accept the plaintiff’s proposition that he was a joint author with Savil “I think that plaint's assistance was no more than"ny publisher would give to an author,” said the Magistrate. He found that the negatives used in the photo-engraving process by which the catalogue was printed were not the subject of copyright by the plaintiff. “I think the negatives are not themselves ‘original’ within the meaning of Section 8 (1) (a) but are copies of the script' prepared by Savil and are in fact as much a part of the process of printing as the type when set up ready for printing,” said the Magistrate. “I cannot think that they are the subject of coypright,” he said, “except perhaps by the author of the work ot which they are a copy.”