1222 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
Order in Council under the International Copyright Acts made 
after the passing of this Act as respects any foreign country 
should not apply to any British possession, it shall be lawful 
for Her Majesty by the same or any other Order in Council 
to declare that such Order and the International Copyright 
Acts and this Act shall not, and the same shall not, apply 
to such British possession, except so far as is necessary 
for preventing any prejudice to any rights acquired pre- 
viously to the date of such Order; and the expressions 
in the said Acts relating to Her Majesty’s dominions shall 
be construed accordingly ; but save as provided by such 
declaration the said Acts and this Act shall apply to every 
British possession as if it were part of the United Kingdom. 
It will be seen that these sections extend to the author of 
a literary or artistic work first produced in any Colony copy- 
“ight throughout the Queen’s Dominions, and that it pre- 
serves the power of any British possession to legislate respect- 
ing copyright within that possession of works first produced 
'n that possession. 
The effect of the Act, therefore, was that the author of a 
book first published in any part of the British Dominions had 
copyright in the book throughout the British Dominions for 
the term allowed by English law, and the author of a book 
first published in any foreign country belonging to the Copy- 
right Union had copyright throughout the British Dominions 
for the same term or for any less term allowed by the law 
of the foreign country for copyright under that law. The 
Convention and the Act provided that the copyright is 
acquired automatically, so that any conditions as to printing 
or reprinting locally as a condition of obtaining copyright 
in a book first published in any country of the Copyright 
Union could not be imposed consistently with the Convention 
by any country which formed part of the Union. 
In 1889 the Canadian Parliament passed an Act (c. 29) 
dealing with copyright which provided that copyright could 
be obtained by any person domiciled in any part of Canada 
or the British possessions or any citizen of any country which 
had an International Copyright Treaty with the United 
Kingdom in which Canada was included. The term of