1225 
N 
EGISLATIO 
CHAP. vir] COPYRIGHT L 
and in 1875, and that the advice was in harmony with the 
judgement of two judges in the case of Smiles v. Belford! 
He also pointed out two provisions in the Act to which special 
°Xception was taken by the proprietors of copyright in Eng- 
land. Tn the first place, under the Canadian Copyright Act 
of 1875 no limitation of time for printing and publishing 
I reprinting and republishing in Canada was imposed, while 
the new Act allowed only one month, and in the great majority 
of cases jt would practically be impossible to make the 
lecessary arrangements within that time. Secondly, strong 
Objection was felt to the provision empowering the grant of 
licences to print and publish works for which copyright 
Might have been obtained. The Secretary of State admitted 
that the Royal Commissioners on Copyright in their Report 
ot 1878 had recommended such grants ‘in case no adequate 
provision were made by republication in the Colony or 
otherwise within a reasonable time after publication else- 
where for a supply of the work sufficient for general sale and 
sirculation in he Colony ’, but the conditions which in the 
view of the Commissioners seemed reasonable as conditions 
precedent to the granting of such licences had hardly had 
effect given to them in the Act. He added that it was not 
Proposed to denounce the Convention of 1886 on behalf of 
Canada for the present, as Her Majesty's Government were 
00% able to concur in the issue of a proclamation to bring 
the Ack of 1889 io foieE. He suggested that it might be 
better to leave the law as it stood pending the determination 
of the question of legislation on copyright which was updo 
“onsideration in the United States and any negotiations 
“onsequent thereon between Her Majesty’s Government and 
the Uniteq States. 
Negotiations with the United States eventuated in 1891 in 
the Passing of an Act in the United States which provided 
or the grant of Americar copyright in a book to the author, 
being a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation, ob 
condition that two printed. copies of the book printed from 
ype set within the limits of the United States must be 
10.4 R436 2 Seg Parl. Pap., C. 6426.