before the end of forty-two years from the first publication, the copyright shall endure for such period of fortytwo years; and that when the work is posthumous, the copyright shall endure for forty-two years from the first publication, and shall be the property of the proprietor of the author's manuscript (s. 3). In cases of subsisting copyright, at the time of the passing of the act, the term was to be extended, except when it belonged to an assignee, for other consideration than natural love and affection, in which case it is to cease at the end of the present term, unless its extension be agreed to between. the proprietor and the author, (s. 4). By stat. 17, it is further provided that no person except the proprietor shall import into the British dominions for sale or hire any book first composed within the United Kingdom and printed elsewhere, under the penalty of the forfeiture thereof, and also of £10, and double the value, and such books may be seized by any officer of customs or excise. It is also provided by the act that every book may be registered at Stationers' Hall, and without such registration no action shall be commenced, but such registration or omission is not otherwise essential to the copyright (s. 11). By stat. 3 W. IV. c. 15, and 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, ss. 20 & 21, the author of any dramatic piece or musical composition or his assigns, shall have as his property the sole liberty of representing it or causing it to be represented for the period of twenty-eight years, and for the life of the author, if he shall then be living; and this right is protected by penalties. By stat. 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 65, lectures are protected from being published without the consent of the authors; and by stat. 38 Geo. III. c. 71, and 54 Geo. III. c. 56, sculpture is also protected. By stat. 54 G. III. c. 156, eleven copies of every published work were ordered to be gratuitously delivered to the eleven public libraries mentioned in the act. By stat. 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 110, and 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, ss. 6-8, this part of the act is repealed, and the number is now reduced to five. By stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 59, the benefit of international copyright is in certain cases secured, as it empowers her Majesty by order in council, to direct that Remedy for piracy. Patents. authors of books first published in foreign countries, and their assigns, shall have a copyright in such books within her Majesty's dominion. By stat. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 100, amended by stat. 6 & 7 Vict. c. 57, protection is also given to the copyright of designs for ornamenting articles of manufacture. The term of protection allowed depends on the nature of the article, which are divided by the act into thirteen classes. Designs in articles wholly or chiefly of metal, wood, glass, earthenware, floorcloth, paper-hangings, carpets, shawls of a particular kind, and woven fabrics of a particular kind, are protected for three years; designs in articles of shawls of another kind, in yarn, thread, or warp or woven fabrics of another class, are protected for nine calendar months; and designs in articles of a woven. fabric of a third class, and lace, and all other articles of manufacture, are protected for twelve months. These copyrights are protected by penalties, and have already been found of great benefit to the fair and ingenious trader. It should be observed, that the most effectual remedy for the protection of copyright is to be found in a court of equity, which will grant an injunction to restrain the piratical work. But copyright must now be registered.a If, however, the publication be of such a nature, that the author cannot maintain an action at law, a court of equity will not grant an injunction. A work therefore of an immoral or libellous character has not this protection." The remedy at law is also facilitated by the new copyright act. These parliamentary protections appear to have been suggested by the exception in the statute of monopolies, 21 Jac. I. c. 3, which allows a royal patent of privilege to be granted for fourteen years to any inventor of a new manufacture, for the sole working or making of the same; by virtue whereof it is held that a temporary property therein becomes vested in the king's patentee ;* and 4 See ante, p. 463. Walcot, v. Walker, 7 Ves: 1; t 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, ss. 15, 16. by stat. 5 & 6 W. IV. c. 83, (amended by stat. 2 & 3 Vict. c. 67,) his right may be extended for seven years' by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, on a proper case being made out. A bill is now before parliament (1844) for enabling the Judicial Committee to extend this term. t See further as to copyright, post p. 468. CHAPTER THE TWENTY-NINTH. [ 408 ] OF TITLE BY PREROGATIVE, AND FORFEITURE. Title by prerogative. Tributes, taxes, and customs. [ 409 ] The king cannot have perty. A SECOND method of acquiring property in personal chattels is by the king's prerogative: whereby a right may accrue either to the crown itself, or to such as claim under the title of the crown, as by the king's grant, or by prescription, which supposes an ancient grant. Such in the first place are all tributes, taxes, and customs; whether constitutionally inherent in the crown, as flowers of the prerogative and branches of the census regalis, or ancient royal revenue, or whether they be occasionally created by authority of parliament; of both which species of revenue we have elsewhere treated." In these the king acquires and the subject loses a property, the instant they become due: if paid, they are a chose in possession; if unpaid, a chose in action. Hither also may be referred all forfeitures, fines, and amercements due to the king, which accrue by virtue of his ancient prerogative, or by particular modern statutes: which revenues. created by statute do always assimilate, or take the same nature, with the ancient revenues; and may therefore be looked upon as arising from a kind of artificial or secondary prerogative. And, in either case, the owner of the thing forfeited, and the person fined or amerced, lose and part with the property of the forfeiture, fine, or amercement, the instant the king or his grantee acquires it. In these several methods of acquiring property by prerogative there is also this peculiar quality, that the king a joint pro- cannot have a joint property with any person in one entire chattel, or such a one as is not capable of division or separation; but where the titles of the king and a subject concur, the king shall have the whole : in like manner as See Rights of Persons, p. [307.] the king cannot, either by grant or contract, become a joint-tenant of a chattel real with another person; but by such grant or contract shall become entitled to the whole in severalty. Thus, if a horse be given to the king and a private person, the king shall have the sole property: if a bond be made to the king and a subject, the king shall have the whole penalty; the debt or duty being one single chattel; and so, if two persons have the property of a horse between them, or have a joint debt owing them on bond, and one of them assigns his part to the king, or is attainted, whereby his moiety is forfeited to the crown; the king shall have the entire horse, and entire debt. For, as it is not consistent with the dignity of the crown to be partner with a subject, so neither does the king ever lose his right in any instance; but, where they interfere, his is always preferred to that of another person: from which two principles it is a necessary consequence, that the innocent though unfortunate partner must lose his share in both the debt and the horse, or in any other chattel in the same circumstances. franchises of This doctrine has no opportunity to take place in cer- Inherent tain other instances of title by prerogative, that remain the crown. to be mentioned; as the chattels thereby vested are originally and solely vested in the crown, without any transfer or derivative assignment either by deed or law from any former proprietor. Such is the acquisition of property in wreck, in treasure trove, in waifs, in estrays, in royal fish, in swans, and the like; which are not transferred to the [410] sovereign from any former owner, but are originally inherent in him by the rules of law, and are derived to particular subjects, as royal franchises, by his bounty. These are ascribed to him, partly upon the particular reasons elsewhere mentioned; and partly upon the general principle of their being bona vacantia, and therefore vested in the king, as well to preserve the peace of the public, as in trust to employ them for the safety and ornament of the commonwealth. b See page 207. c Fitzh. Abr. t. Dette, 38; Plowd. 243. d Cro. Eliz. 263; Plowd. 323; See Rights of Persons, ch. 8. |