Copyright Act 1911
The Copyright Act of 1911 is a parliamentary act of the United Kingdom. The act obsoleted copyright law previously established in the UK and its territories.
Enactment
The act was instated as follows:
| Region | Date of enactment |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1 July 1912 |
| Channel Islands* | 1 July 1912 |
| Isle of Man | 5 July 1912 |
| India | 30 October 1912 |
| Jersey | 8 March 1913 |
| Papua | 1 February 1931 |
| (remaining territories) | 1 July 1912 |
*sans Jersey
(cf. Partridge, 154f.)
Content
The Copyright Act of 1911 repealed the previous act from 1842. It consists of three separate sections:
Part 1: Imperial Copyright
Part 2: International Copyright
Part 3: Supplemental Provisions
The Imperial Copyright is reserved to works published in the UK or other parts of the Empire's territories and to unpublished works created by British citizens or residents. All original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work that these criteria apply to is in the scope of this act - however other works are exempt from this right. The term "copyright" in itself refers to the right to not only (re-)produce, perform or publish a translation of a work but also the right to create adaptations (in form of novels or performances) and, interestingly, "to make any record, perforated roll, cinematograph film, or other contrivance by means of which the work may be mechanically performed or delivered" (Copyright Act 1911, 1(2d)). Generally speaking, copyright is an innate property of any work that falls under the aforementioned descriptions and applies the moment these works have manifested in physical form (e.g. as soon as an author has written his novel). Copyright is not eternal - as such it runs out after 50 years following the publication of a work or, in case of an unpublished work, after 50 years following the author's death.
The various laws in this act were, of course, not as plain as this summary may suggest and included several more sophisticated nuances. An example of that may be that if a copyright holder other than the a work's author is in place, they will retain their right to the work for only the first 25 of the 50 years after the author's death while for the latter 25 years the author retains the default copyright (cf. D'Agostino, 116).
Works cited
- Copyright Act 1911. UK Public General Acts. URL: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/1-2/46/contents/enacted. Last Access: 22 July 2021.
- D'Agostino, Giuseppina. Copyright, Contracts, Creators: New Media, New Rules. 2010. Edward Elgar.
- Partridge, R. C. Barrington. The History of the Legal Deposit of Books. 2008. Read Books.