PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Memorial of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, London (1879)

Source: Royal Academy of Arts Archive.

Citation:
Memorial of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, London (1879), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Record-ID: uk_1879b

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_uk_1879b

Full title:
Memorial to Her Majesty’s Government by the Royal Academy of Arts, on the subject of the recommendations on Artistic Copyright in Paintings and Drawings contained in the Report of the Royal Commission on Copyright.

Full title original language:
N/A

Abstract:
The Memorial, presented to the Government by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1879, expresses opposition to the recommendations made in 1878 by the Royal Commission on Copyright, that copyright should be owned by the purchaser of a painting (such that copyright would pass with sale of the painting). In doing so, the Royal Academy asserted that ownership of copyright by the painter was ‘to the public interest’ and ‘for the benefit of the community’; the painter was best placed to control reproduction. The Memorial also discusses issues raised by replicas and portraits. Of interest, is the expansive definition of portraits: encompassing all cases where ‘voluntary sittings or permission for access’ are required, by on or behalf of the commissioner (p.70).

Commentary: No commentaries for this record.

Bibliography:
  • Cooper, E., Art and Modern Copyright: The Contested Image (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018) p.137, p.143, p.148, p.165.


Related documents in this database:

Author: N/A

Publisher: N/A

Year: 1879

Location: London

Language: English

Source: Royal Academy of Arts Archive.

Persons referred to:
Delabere Roberton Blaine
Victoria
William Hogarth

Places referred to:
British dominions
London

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
House of Commons
House of Lords
Royal Academy of Arts
Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Legislation:
N/A

Keywords:
Art
Collectors
Painting
Portraits
Replicas
Royal Academy of Arts
Royal Commission on Copyright
Society of Arts

Responsible editor: Elena Cooper


Copyright History resource developed in partnership with:

Our Partners

Copyright statement

You may copy and distribute the translations and commentaries in this resource, or parts of such translations and commentaries, in any medium, for non-commercial purposes as long as the authorship of the commentaries and translations is acknowledged, and you indicate the source as Bently & Kretschmer (eds), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) (www.copyrighthistory.org).

With the exception of commentaries that are available under a CC-BY licence (compliant with UKRI policy) you may not publish individual documents or parts of the database for any commercial purposes, including charging a fee for providing access to these documents via a network. This licence does not affect your statutory rights of fair dealing.

Although the original documents in this database are in the public domain, we are unable to grant you the right to reproduce or duplicate some of these documents in so far as the images or scans are protected by copyright or we have only been able to reproduce them here by giving contractual undertakings. For the status of any particular images, please consult the information relating to copyright in the bibliographic records.

Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) is co-published by Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ, UK and CREATe, School of Law, University of Glasgow, 10 The Square, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK