BYGONE AUTHORS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25347, 31 October 1945, Page 5

BYGONE AUTHORS

USE OF THEIR WORKS ROYALTY PLAN PROPOSED Discussing the tcchnicolour film version of "Henry V." in John O'London's Weekly, Mr Ivor Blown makes the interesting proposal that royalties should ho levied on the use of i|oncopyriglif litcrarv works, and (he proceeds used for cultural purposes on behalf of the community. "If Shakespeare were l a living author or only just dead, he and his heirs would he able, to sell the text's for enormous sums of money, many hundreds of thousands of pounds at least," .Mr Brown writes. "As it is. the film companies simply get away with this. Of course, they have to pay for adapters and consultants, but their authorship fees are a trifle compared with what Shakespeare, no mean lousiness man, could have made them disgorge. "An Act establishing public property in works of art out of copyright would, if properly worked out and administered with discretion, be no injustice. It would bring in enormous .•aims to the public purse and these sums could be spent by an Arts Commission (say the present Arts Council, late C.K.M.A., on a larger scale) spreading books, plriys, music and so forth for the widest possible appreciation. So would the classics continue to spread light and laughter, for which purpose they were written. " 'Henry V.' has given a great dcai of pleasure and has brought and will biiug enormous sums to the boxoffice ll is Imiiiu! to be followed by more classic films. Is there any conceivable reason why the film companies, which gladly pay hundreds of thousands of pounds for the works of modern novelists, and do not get C!..U.S. for sixpence, should walk of with William Shakespeare for nothing?"