1220 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V
not repugnant to the Order in Council of 1868 for the
admission of foreign reprints into Canada.
This Act is still in force in Canada as chapter 70 of the
Revised Statutes of 19086.
The position as it stood after the passing of this Act in
1875 was that British authors possessed copyright in Canada
ander the Imperial Act of 1842; that the introduction of
foreign reprints into Canada was regulated under the
authority of the Imperial Act of 1847 by local legislation
in the Dominion, and that copyright in works produced in
Canada was granted for Canada by the Canadian Act of
1875. Foreign authors in certain cases (e. g. that of France)
possessed copyrights in Canada by virtue of Orders in Council
issued under Imperial Copyright Acts of 1844, 1852, and 1875.
On the other hand, works first published in Canada did not
enjoy copyright in the United Kingdom.
An important change took place in the position of the
question of copyright in consequence of the International
Convention signed at Berne on December 9, 1886, creating
an International Union for the protection of literary and
artistic works. The effect of the Convention was to secure to
authors in any of the countries of the Union, or their lawful
representatives in other countries of the Union, for their
works, whether published in one of those countries or un-
published, the rights which the respective laws of those
countries granted or might thereafter grant to natives. The
enjoyment of these rights was to be subject to the accomplish-
ment of the conditions and formalities prescribed by law in
the country of origin of the work, and was not to exceed in
the other countries the term of protection granted in the
country of origin. The Act was adopted by Order in
Council of November 28, 1887.
This Convention was accepted by the Governments of
Canada and the Australasian Colonies.
The treaty was the outcome of a Conference held at Berne
in 1884 and 1885, and when early in 1886 it was decided to
pass a Bill to enable the Convention to be accepted by Her
Majesty’s Government the Dominion Governments were
