Odger's English Common Law

COPYRIGHT. 605
and fifty years after his death by the Copyright Act, 1911, 1
which has repealed practically all earlier statutes dealing with
the subject. 2
Copyright may also exist in a dramatic or musical com-
position. The author of any dramatic piece or musical com-
position, 3 or his assign, has now during the life of the author
and for fifty years after his death the sole liberty of repre-
senting or performing such piece or composition in public and
of making " any record, perforated roll, cinematograph film
or other contrivance by means of which the work may be
mechanically performed." i
If he publishes his work as a
book, he secures for himself the copyright in the book in
addition to the exclusive right of representation or performance.
There is also copyright in engravings and prints, which
lasts for the same period. A similar copyright also exists in
sculpture, models and casts, and in original paintings, draw-
ings and photographs, 5 and now, under the Act of 1911, in
architectural works of art. Lastly, copyright in designs,
which was regulated by many former Acts, 6 is now included
in the Patents and Designs Act of 1907.
We must however restrict ourselves in the rest of this
chapter to literary copyright.
The copyright in a literary work now "means the sole
right to produce or reproduce the work or any substantial
part thereof in any material form whatsoever ; to perform, or
in the case of a lecture to deliver, the work or any substantial
part thereof in public ; if the work is unpublished, to publish
the work or any substantial part thereof." It includes the
sole right to produce, reproduce, perform or publish any
translation of the work, 7 and in the case of a novel or other
1
1 & 2 Geo. V. c. 46, s. 3. And see ss. 21, 24.
2 As to international copyright, see ss. 29 aDd 30 of the Act.
3 As to what constitutes a dramatic piece or musical composition, see 5 & 6 Tict.
c. 45, s. 42 ; Warm $ Co. v. Seebohm (1888), 39 Ch. X>. 73 ; Boosey v. Whight,
[1899] 1 Ch. 836 ; [1900] 1 Ch. 122 ; Mabe v. Connor, suprd; and see the judgmentof
Lord Esher, M., R., in Fullerv. Blackpool Wirifier'