PRIMARY SOURCES
ON COPYRIGHT
(1450-1900)
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Association for the Book trade’s Draft of a Bill on the Right to Copy, Amsterdam (1858)
Source: Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteitsbibliotheek van Amsterdam, Bibliotheek van het Boekenvak, archief KVB, inv. nr. KVB A 355
Citation:
Association for the Book trade’s Draft of a Bill on the Right to Copy, Amsterdam (1858), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
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14 translated pages
Chapter 1 Page 1
DRAFT
OF A
BILL
ON THE
RIGHT TO COPY ETC.
WITH
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM.
Printed for the Members of the Association Promoting
the Interests of the Book trade.
Chapter 1 Page 2
Printed by IPENBUUR & VAN SELDAM
Chapter 1 Page 3
I. Of the Right to copy.
ART. 1.
The right to copy or to copying in print is the exclusive right to publish, distribute, and sell or to cause to be sold literary works, pictures, maps and musical works, in whole or in part, abridged or reduced, in one or more languages or formats.
ART. 2
The right to copy is taken to be movable property.
Transfer between the living must be demonstrated in writing.
The right to copy does not pass on other than with all the obligations connected therewith at the first transfer.
ART. 3.
The right to copy belongs to the authors or their assignees.
Also taken to be authors are the persons who have assembled (editors of) collected works, (magazines, encyclopaedias, journals), which are formed by independent contributions
Chapter 1 Page 4
4
from several co-workers. Unless provided otherwise in the agreement, each co-worker however retains the exclusive right to publish his contributions separately.
ART.4.
The term of the right to copy is:
a. Of works published under the name of the author: the lifespan of the author and twenty years after his death;
b. Of works published without the name of the author, or under a pseudonym, or after the death of the author (anonymous works, those under a pseudonym, or posthumous works): twenty years after the publication;
c. Of works of companies, societies, moral bodies, insofar as the authors are not mentioned therein: twenty years after the publication;
d. Of collective works of more than one author: the lifespan of the authors and twenty years after the death of the first deceased.
The year wherein the death or publication takes place is not counted.
For works, which are made up of multiple volumes, the duration of the right to copy is calculated for each volume separately as an independent work.
ART. 5.
After lapsing of the term set for the right to copy of a work, everyone is free to print, distribute, to sell or cause to be sold that work.
Chapter 1 Page 5
5
ART. 6.
To exercise the right to copy, every edition of any literary work, picture, map and musical work, in reprint as well as first print, should comply with the following conditions:
a. That the work have a Dutch publisher, and his name be printed, either alone, or together with that of a foreign co-publisher on the title page, or in the absence of a title page, where it is most appropiate, with indication of his residence and the time of publication.
b. That of each work, within eight days of the publication, the publisher will deposit three copies, of which one is signed and provided with the date by him on the title page, or, in the absence of a title page, on the cover, with the Municipality of his residence. The municipality gives a receipt thereof, and sends the copies to the Home Office.
Of the given receipt, copies are kept by the Municipality in a register intended for that purpose, which is open to public inspection and from which an extract or copy can be obtained for a fee.
A monthly report is issued by the Home Office in the Government Gazette of the works which have been received there in order to comply with the regulation.
If any work written in a foreign language, besides a Dutch publisher also has a foreign one, the right to copy will not include the exclusive right to
Chapter 1 Page 6
6
publish the work also in the Dutch language, unless it has been printed at a Dutch Printing House.
ART. 7.
There exists no right to copy with regard to Acts, Decrees, State Documents, and that which further is made generally known by some public power, nor with regard to judgments, speeches and reports, of which the public nature is ordained by law; with the exception of those, of which the publication, under art. 18, is taken to be pirated.
ART. 8.
With regard to the right to copy, no differentiation is made between original works and translations.
II. Of the Right to translate.
ART. 9.
An exclusive right to publish in print, distribute, sell and cause to be sold of a Low German translation of any untranslated work, of which no Dutch publisher owns any other copyright than the one restricted by the last paragraph of art. 6, (from the original as well as from a translation from another language), is obtained for the term of ... years by he, who will have first presented a copy of the work to be translated to the municipality of his
Chapter 1 Page 7
7
residence, in case the stipulations stated in art. 10 are complied with.
The municipality will make note of the day of the presentation and the name of the presentor on the title page of the presented copy.
ART. 10.
The presentor is held to give notice of his intention to publish a translation, of the presentation to the Municipality, and of the date of this presentation, within 14 days thereafter, in the Government Gazette.
Within six months of the aforesaid presentation, the presentor will be held to present the Municipality of his residence with six printed sheets of the announced Translation, and give notice thereof in the Government Gazette.
The presented sheets are provided with a date of the presentation by the municipality, and returned to the presentor.
This presentation is not required to take place if the translation has been published in full within six months.
ART. 11.
In case of presentation of the same work on the same day by more than one person, the presentors are equally entitled to translate.
ART. 12.
If the original work is published in
Chapter 1 Page 8
8
parts, the presentation of the issued parts applies also for the following, belonging to the same work.
If the original work is published in volumes, the translation right is obtained for each volume as an independent work; however, it also includes the exclusive translation right of such following volumes that are issued in the original edition during three years after the presentation of the latter. Nevertheless, he who has obtained the translation right of the previously issued volumes cannot be prevented from publishing a translation of the volumes issued later.
Of works, originally published under a collective title, the exclusive translation right is granted only with regard to documents, which occur in the copy presented for translation itself, and of which the specific title is specified at the notice.
ART. 13.
The exclusive translation right lapses with regard to tomes, of which the publication of a translation commenced has been stopped for two years, while the original publication has been completed or continued abroad.
ART. 14.
The exclusive translation right cannot be obtained for the benefit or detriment of:
Translations in Low German meter;
Translations of loose articles in, or copied from, magazines, and of pamphlets, which cover no more than 3 sheets in the original.
Chapter 1 Page 9
9
ART. 15.
A continuous series of items, which are issued originally in a magazine, however, later collectively form one seperate entity, is not included under the previous article.
III. Penal provisions and rights in case of infringement of the Right to copy and the Right to translate.
ART. 16.
Whoever reproduces any work, on which exists a right to copy in this country, is fined NLG 25 to NLG 1000.
At the sentencing, the court rules that the fine, in case the offerder fails to pay it within two months of being notified to do so, will be substituted by imprisonment of ... days to ... months.
The sentencing is always accompanied by: 1. the seizure of the plates, forms and molds, which regularly can only serve to the making of the copied objects; and 2. the allocation of the unsold copies of the pirated work available in this country to the owner of the right to copy; -- regardless of his right to claim compensation in ordinary legal proceedings, insofar as the value of the allocated copies, calculated by the necessary costs of their manufacturing, should not be sufficient for this purpose.
Chapter 1 Page 10
10
ART. 17.
Under the same penalties is punished whoever consciously distributes, sells, or imports for distribution or selling, pirated copies of any work, on which exists a right to copy in this country.
ART. 18.
Piracy is also taken to be: a. the publishing in print, without consent of the author or his assignees, of manuscripts, and orally held lessons, sermons, lectures, and such like speeches; b. the publishing in print, consciously distributing, selling, or importing for distribution, or selling of Low German (or Flemish) translations of any work, on which exists an exclusive translation right in this country.
ART. 19.
The seizure and the allocation (set out in art. 16) will also take place, when the accused is acquitted or discharged of prosecution.
ART. 20.
It is not considered as infringment of the right to copy to communicate abstracts thereof in magazines or other work, or to give quotations therefrom, for purposes of review or to give notice of the nature and value of any work published in print; provided that such quotations or abstracts together do not exceed a tenth part of the work itself, and are not made up from fragments which form a whole by themselves.
Chapter 1 Page 11
11
III. Legal Proceedings.
ART. 21.
All infringements of the rights to copy or to translate, for which penalty or forfeiture is threatened, are prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor upon a complaint by the rights owners. They are initiated and proceeded as correctional cases.
According to its content, at the claim is submitted: the receipt of the municipality (art. 6, para. b), the copy presented to the municipality under art. 9, and the authenticated sheets mentioned in art 10.
In case the Public Prosecutor finds no grounds for initiating proceedings, he gives written notice thereof to the applicant, in a notification bearing a date.
ART. 22.
Pirated copies, or those taken to be pirated, of any literary work, picture, map or musical work, can be seized by the owners of the copyright of such a work, in order to ensure themselves of the allocation thereof.
This seizure occurs in the same manner as the seizure under foreclosure of movable property.
In case of a claim, within eight days of the seizure, notice is given thereof, with submission of the record, to the Public Prosecutor of the court, under which jurisdiction it is seized.
Individual copies, owned by persons who do not trade in these objects and have obtained them for personal use, cannot be seized.
Chapter 1 Page 12
12
ART. 23.
If no prosecution takes place, the judgment creditor is obliged to serve a writ of summons on the judgment debtor for Statement of Value before the civil Court.
The demand for Statement of Value has to occur on penalty of the nullification of the seizure:
a. if there had been no claim during the seizure, and this had not been paired with the submission of the record, within eight days of the seizure;
b. if the claim does not give rise to a prosecution, within eight days of the reception of the notification of the Public Prosecutor, mentioned in art. 21, last paragraph.
ART. 24.
If the seizure is lifted, the judgment creditor will be ordered to cover costs, damages and interests, in case grounds thereto are present.
ART. 25.
In respect of the claim, the seizure and allocation, the publisher is taken to be the representative of the owner of the right to copy, subject to the right of the latter to enforce his rights himself, in so far as he has an interest independent from the publisher's.
ART. 26.
All criminal proceedings under this Act will be barred through the lapse of two years.
Chapter 1 Page 13
13
IV. Transitional Provisions.
ART. 27.
The right to copy of any work, which under the Act of 25 January 1817 was not considered to be subject to any right to copy, but is so under the present Act, is granted to them who would have obtained that right, had the present Act been in force at the publication of that work.
This right cannot be invoked against those who had on (day, on which the Draft of the Act is filed) already published that work in print.
ART. 28.
Of all the works in respect of which one wishes to ensure the enjoyment of the previous article, a copy has to be deposited with the Municipality of residence of the stakeholder within one month after the date of this Act, in order that thereby will be acted as is provided in art. 6.
In the receipt to be issued, notification will be made of the time of the original publication of the deposited work, according to the statement of the stakeholder. Rebuttal of this statement is allowed.
ART. 29.
The publisher of a translation, which, within six months after the date of this Act, has been published in full or
Chapter 1 Page 14
14
in part, can ensure themselves of the right of translation, set out in art. 9 and for the time allotted there, counted from the time of publication, in the same manner and under the same conditions as provided in the previous Article 28. Of the deposited additionally has to be given notice in the Government Gazette within eight days.
This right cannot be invoked against those who, before the date of this Act, had already published, in full or in part, a translation of that work.
ART. 30.
The provisions of this Act are applicable to all new editions or reprints of previously published works being published after its promulgation.
ART. 31.
The right to copy, obtained under earlier legislation, enjoys the protection of the present Act, however, with regard to the duration is judged according to the Act under which it originated.
ART. 32
All earlier Acts and Decrees, concerning the right to copy and translation, are hereby repealed and abrogated.
Translation by: Miluska Kooij
Source: Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteitsbibliotheek van Amsterdam, Bibliotheek van het Boekenvak, archief KVB, inv. nr. KVB A 355
Citation:
Association for the Book trade’s Draft of a Bill on the Right to Copy, Amsterdam (1858), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org
Back | Record | Images | No Commentaries
Translation only | Transcription only | Show all | Bundled images as pdf
14 translated pages
Chapter 1 Page 1
DRAFT
OF A
BILL
ON THE
RIGHT TO COPY ETC.
WITH
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM.
Printed for the Members of the Association Promoting
the Interests of the Book trade.
Chapter 1 Page 2
Printed by IPENBUUR & VAN SELDAM
Chapter 1 Page 3
I. Of the Right to copy.
ART. 1.
The right to copy or to copying in print is the exclusive right to publish, distribute, and sell or to cause to be sold literary works, pictures, maps and musical works, in whole or in part, abridged or reduced, in one or more languages or formats.
ART. 2
The right to copy is taken to be movable property.
Transfer between the living must be demonstrated in writing.
The right to copy does not pass on other than with all the obligations connected therewith at the first transfer.
ART. 3.
The right to copy belongs to the authors or their assignees.
Also taken to be authors are the persons who have assembled (editors of) collected works, (magazines, encyclopaedias, journals), which are formed by independent contributions
Chapter 1 Page 4
4
from several co-workers. Unless provided otherwise in the agreement, each co-worker however retains the exclusive right to publish his contributions separately.
ART.4.
The term of the right to copy is:
a. Of works published under the name of the author: the lifespan of the author and twenty years after his death;
b. Of works published without the name of the author, or under a pseudonym, or after the death of the author (anonymous works, those under a pseudonym, or posthumous works): twenty years after the publication;
c. Of works of companies, societies, moral bodies, insofar as the authors are not mentioned therein: twenty years after the publication;
d. Of collective works of more than one author: the lifespan of the authors and twenty years after the death of the first deceased.
The year wherein the death or publication takes place is not counted.
For works, which are made up of multiple volumes, the duration of the right to copy is calculated for each volume separately as an independent work.
ART. 5.
After lapsing of the term set for the right to copy of a work, everyone is free to print, distribute, to sell or cause to be sold that work.
Chapter 1 Page 5
5
ART. 6.
To exercise the right to copy, every edition of any literary work, picture, map and musical work, in reprint as well as first print, should comply with the following conditions:
a. That the work have a Dutch publisher, and his name be printed, either alone, or together with that of a foreign co-publisher on the title page, or in the absence of a title page, where it is most appropiate, with indication of his residence and the time of publication.
b. That of each work, within eight days of the publication, the publisher will deposit three copies, of which one is signed and provided with the date by him on the title page, or, in the absence of a title page, on the cover, with the Municipality of his residence. The municipality gives a receipt thereof, and sends the copies to the Home Office.
Of the given receipt, copies are kept by the Municipality in a register intended for that purpose, which is open to public inspection and from which an extract or copy can be obtained for a fee.
A monthly report is issued by the Home Office in the Government Gazette of the works which have been received there in order to comply with the regulation.
If any work written in a foreign language, besides a Dutch publisher also has a foreign one, the right to copy will not include the exclusive right to
Chapter 1 Page 6
6
publish the work also in the Dutch language, unless it has been printed at a Dutch Printing House.
ART. 7.
There exists no right to copy with regard to Acts, Decrees, State Documents, and that which further is made generally known by some public power, nor with regard to judgments, speeches and reports, of which the public nature is ordained by law; with the exception of those, of which the publication, under art. 18, is taken to be pirated.
ART. 8.
With regard to the right to copy, no differentiation is made between original works and translations.
II. Of the Right to translate.
ART. 9.
An exclusive right to publish in print, distribute, sell and cause to be sold of a Low German translation of any untranslated work, of which no Dutch publisher owns any other copyright than the one restricted by the last paragraph of art. 6, (from the original as well as from a translation from another language), is obtained for the term of ... years by he, who will have first presented a copy of the work to be translated to the municipality of his
Chapter 1 Page 7
7
residence, in case the stipulations stated in art. 10 are complied with.
The municipality will make note of the day of the presentation and the name of the presentor on the title page of the presented copy.
ART. 10.
The presentor is held to give notice of his intention to publish a translation, of the presentation to the Municipality, and of the date of this presentation, within 14 days thereafter, in the Government Gazette.
Within six months of the aforesaid presentation, the presentor will be held to present the Municipality of his residence with six printed sheets of the announced Translation, and give notice thereof in the Government Gazette.
The presented sheets are provided with a date of the presentation by the municipality, and returned to the presentor.
This presentation is not required to take place if the translation has been published in full within six months.
ART. 11.
In case of presentation of the same work on the same day by more than one person, the presentors are equally entitled to translate.
ART. 12.
If the original work is published in
Chapter 1 Page 8
8
parts, the presentation of the issued parts applies also for the following, belonging to the same work.
If the original work is published in volumes, the translation right is obtained for each volume as an independent work; however, it also includes the exclusive translation right of such following volumes that are issued in the original edition during three years after the presentation of the latter. Nevertheless, he who has obtained the translation right of the previously issued volumes cannot be prevented from publishing a translation of the volumes issued later.
Of works, originally published under a collective title, the exclusive translation right is granted only with regard to documents, which occur in the copy presented for translation itself, and of which the specific title is specified at the notice.
ART. 13.
The exclusive translation right lapses with regard to tomes, of which the publication of a translation commenced has been stopped for two years, while the original publication has been completed or continued abroad.
ART. 14.
The exclusive translation right cannot be obtained for the benefit or detriment of:
Translations in Low German meter;
Translations of loose articles in, or copied from, magazines, and of pamphlets, which cover no more than 3 sheets in the original.
Chapter 1 Page 9
9
ART. 15.
A continuous series of items, which are issued originally in a magazine, however, later collectively form one seperate entity, is not included under the previous article.
III. Penal provisions and rights in case of infringement of the Right to copy and the Right to translate.
ART. 16.
Whoever reproduces any work, on which exists a right to copy in this country, is fined NLG 25 to NLG 1000.
At the sentencing, the court rules that the fine, in case the offerder fails to pay it within two months of being notified to do so, will be substituted by imprisonment of ... days to ... months.
The sentencing is always accompanied by: 1. the seizure of the plates, forms and molds, which regularly can only serve to the making of the copied objects; and 2. the allocation of the unsold copies of the pirated work available in this country to the owner of the right to copy; -- regardless of his right to claim compensation in ordinary legal proceedings, insofar as the value of the allocated copies, calculated by the necessary costs of their manufacturing, should not be sufficient for this purpose.
Chapter 1 Page 10
10
ART. 17.
Under the same penalties is punished whoever consciously distributes, sells, or imports for distribution or selling, pirated copies of any work, on which exists a right to copy in this country.
ART. 18.
Piracy is also taken to be: a. the publishing in print, without consent of the author or his assignees, of manuscripts, and orally held lessons, sermons, lectures, and such like speeches; b. the publishing in print, consciously distributing, selling, or importing for distribution, or selling of Low German (or Flemish) translations of any work, on which exists an exclusive translation right in this country.
ART. 19.
The seizure and the allocation (set out in art. 16) will also take place, when the accused is acquitted or discharged of prosecution.
ART. 20.
It is not considered as infringment of the right to copy to communicate abstracts thereof in magazines or other work, or to give quotations therefrom, for purposes of review or to give notice of the nature and value of any work published in print; provided that such quotations or abstracts together do not exceed a tenth part of the work itself, and are not made up from fragments which form a whole by themselves.
Chapter 1 Page 11
11
III. Legal Proceedings.
ART. 21.
All infringements of the rights to copy or to translate, for which penalty or forfeiture is threatened, are prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor upon a complaint by the rights owners. They are initiated and proceeded as correctional cases.
According to its content, at the claim is submitted: the receipt of the municipality (art. 6, para. b), the copy presented to the municipality under art. 9, and the authenticated sheets mentioned in art 10.
In case the Public Prosecutor finds no grounds for initiating proceedings, he gives written notice thereof to the applicant, in a notification bearing a date.
ART. 22.
Pirated copies, or those taken to be pirated, of any literary work, picture, map or musical work, can be seized by the owners of the copyright of such a work, in order to ensure themselves of the allocation thereof.
This seizure occurs in the same manner as the seizure under foreclosure of movable property.
In case of a claim, within eight days of the seizure, notice is given thereof, with submission of the record, to the Public Prosecutor of the court, under which jurisdiction it is seized.
Individual copies, owned by persons who do not trade in these objects and have obtained them for personal use, cannot be seized.
Chapter 1 Page 12
12
ART. 23.
If no prosecution takes place, the judgment creditor is obliged to serve a writ of summons on the judgment debtor for Statement of Value before the civil Court.
The demand for Statement of Value has to occur on penalty of the nullification of the seizure:
a. if there had been no claim during the seizure, and this had not been paired with the submission of the record, within eight days of the seizure;
b. if the claim does not give rise to a prosecution, within eight days of the reception of the notification of the Public Prosecutor, mentioned in art. 21, last paragraph.
ART. 24.
If the seizure is lifted, the judgment creditor will be ordered to cover costs, damages and interests, in case grounds thereto are present.
ART. 25.
In respect of the claim, the seizure and allocation, the publisher is taken to be the representative of the owner of the right to copy, subject to the right of the latter to enforce his rights himself, in so far as he has an interest independent from the publisher's.
ART. 26.
All criminal proceedings under this Act will be barred through the lapse of two years.
Chapter 1 Page 13
13
IV. Transitional Provisions.
ART. 27.
The right to copy of any work, which under the Act of 25 January 1817 was not considered to be subject to any right to copy, but is so under the present Act, is granted to them who would have obtained that right, had the present Act been in force at the publication of that work.
This right cannot be invoked against those who had on (day, on which the Draft of the Act is filed) already published that work in print.
ART. 28.
Of all the works in respect of which one wishes to ensure the enjoyment of the previous article, a copy has to be deposited with the Municipality of residence of the stakeholder within one month after the date of this Act, in order that thereby will be acted as is provided in art. 6.
In the receipt to be issued, notification will be made of the time of the original publication of the deposited work, according to the statement of the stakeholder. Rebuttal of this statement is allowed.
ART. 29.
The publisher of a translation, which, within six months after the date of this Act, has been published in full or
Chapter 1 Page 14
14
in part, can ensure themselves of the right of translation, set out in art. 9 and for the time allotted there, counted from the time of publication, in the same manner and under the same conditions as provided in the previous Article 28. Of the deposited additionally has to be given notice in the Government Gazette within eight days.
This right cannot be invoked against those who, before the date of this Act, had already published, in full or in part, a translation of that work.
ART. 30.
The provisions of this Act are applicable to all new editions or reprints of previously published works being published after its promulgation.
ART. 31.
The right to copy, obtained under earlier legislation, enjoys the protection of the present Act, however, with regard to the duration is judged according to the Act under which it originated.
ART. 32
All earlier Acts and Decrees, concerning the right to copy and translation, are hereby repealed and abrogated.
Translation by: Miluska Kooij