RUSSIA’S RETURNING SANITY

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1929, Page 11

RUSSIA’S RETURNING SANITY

MENTAL LABOUR RECOGNISED. TO ENJOY RIGHTS OF “WORKERS.” According to a. section in “the new law of property. rights” recently promulgated by the Moscow Government, the rights of authors and composers are identified with those of “employed labour.” Heretofore, if a publisher went bankrupt, ■ all his employees were paid off first from any of the realised assets and the authors had to stand in line with tho reamining creditors. According to the new law, authors, artists aiM composers are now placed in the same cate"ory as the workers and will have with them a first claim on the assets of their bankrupt “employer.” The new law- also allows authors and composers more remuneration for their work by limiting the free .use of literary, musical and artistic creations, which formerly could be reproduced by a third party without the consent oL-tho originator. But the law does not at present recognise the rights of authors in regard to translations of their works. An important clause in the new law, which supersedes that of 1925, is the standardising of contracts between authors and composers and the State. Since the revolution the State had been

in a position to dictate the. contracts. Now there is a provision;; for the safeguarding of the interest's of authors and composers, providing .for either a fixed purchase price or a''running' scale of royalties based on the . number of the works sold. . . This is explained in ari annex saying that mental labour now receives the same protection from the State that physical labour had hitherto solely enjoyed.