DRAMATIC COPYRIGHT.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 55, 2 September 1903, Page 4

DRAMATIC COPYRIGHT.

« This evening the House^will have before it for further consideration the Dramatic Copyright Bill introduced by Mr. Field. Some hostility was shown to the measure on the occasion of its second reading, but the arguments adduced by those* who adopted this attitude deserve very little consideration. The Bill simply provides for the proper protection of the product of the brains of playwriters. At ( the present time any one can pirate a I play at the cost of the holder of the copyright, if prepared to run the risk of a civil action in the Law Courts. In tho case of a company without means they can pirate plays with impunity, because if the holder of the copyright takes action they, being without means, have nothing to lose, and the order of the Court to pay the fees is ignored. The dishonest manager knows these things, and some of the more unscrupulous take advantage of them whenever it suits their purpose. Th© Bill now introduced by Mr. Field provides a penalty not exceeding £100, with the alternative of imprisonment not exceeding three months, for the pirating of copyright plays. As Mr. Baume put it during the debate on the second reading of the Bill : A man is punished for the theft of turnips, the product of physical labour ; why should he escape punishment for the theft of a play, the product of a man's brains? Theatrical managers go to heavy expense in providing »ew plays for production in this and the other colonies, and they deserve legitimate protection. For our part, we cannot see how any objection can be raised to the safeguards proposed. Theft is theft, whether by a povertystricken beggar or bj' a man of means; and it is a criminal act to steal the product of a man's braine, just as it is to steal the product of his physical labour.