SOME PROPOSED CHANGES IN THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

Authors

  • F ESKONE JAMES

Abstract

New means of reproduction and exploitation have resulted in calls for new extensions in copyright protection. In considering this topic, the Copyright Committee in England has had to distinguish between the older forms of intellectual property, which are generally treated as the author’s personal property, and the more modern forms, which lie at the boundary of intellectual and scientific creations. Underlying each of these matters is the essential nature of the right: whether it is one of property in the strict sense or a mere statutory creation. One approach has been to distinguish between discovery and invention. Under the protection of patent are discoveries whose possibility of discovery exists in manners available to the public by process of mechanical or electrical apparatus. Copyright material, on the other hand, is intellectual creation begotten by individual invention that could never be discovered in its precise form by anyone other than the individual concerned. At bottom, those who have to decide for or against impending changes in the law of copyright must arrive at a firm conclusion as to the nature of the right, so that their decision on the points concerned may flow from a basis of firm principle.

Keywords:

Copyright

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Published

1955-10-01

Issue

Section

Legal Commentary