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Southland Times, Issue 23840, 10 June 1939, Page 14

“Copyrights ought not to be allowed to go derelict. My objection to Shakespeare is that he is a black-leg.” This remark, attributed to Bernard Shaw, was quoted by Gunn Gwennet in an address to the Royal Society of Arts. At present, British copyrights expire 50 years after the author’s death Mr Gwennet suggests that the law should be amended by providing that royalties should continue to be paid after that date—not, however, to the author’s heirs, but to a National Fund created for the benefit of the arts. He asserted that, if such a scheme had been in operation since Shakespeare’s time, it would have produced, from his plays alone, an enormous sum of money which would have been more than enough to build and maintain national theatres all over the country. It has been estimated, too, that, within a recent period of 18 months, a fund of this kind would have benefited by £lO,OOO from royalties on the works of Dickens.