The Law of Copyright [Rezension]

Volltext

The Law of Copyright. By L.C.F. Oldfield, M.A., F.C.S. of the Inner Temple and Southern Eastern Circuit, Barrister-at-Law. London: Butterworth & Co. Toronto: The Carswell Co. Ltd. 1912. pp. xxxiv, 269, 23.

The aim of this book is to present in a brief but complete form the present English and American Law of Copyright, although the work is primarily a commentary on the British Copyright Act of 1911, which goes into effect July 1, 1912. The author states each section of the Act separately, and then proceeds to comment upon it, showing how the law has changed and how the courts have construed similar words and provisions in former acts.  An [S.635] attempt is made also to interpret the Act, where it appears doubtful, by reference to decided cases, and as to matters which are now for the first time made subject to copyright protection by the Act and upon which therefore there are no English decisions, foreign authorities are quoted.

Following this treatment of the English Copyright Act are the United States Copyright Act of 1909, and the Rules and Regulations for the Registration of Claims to Copyright in the United States.  In an appendix is the Revised Berlin Convention of 1908, collated with the Berne Convention of 1886 and the Acts of Paris of 1896.

This work, intended to serve the practitioner as a handbook or code of Copyright law, would seem indispensible to the English and colonial lawyer who practices in copyrights.  And American lawyers desiring to know the rights of American authors and publishers under English law will find this book a ready guide of very considerable value.

J.A.S., Jr