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Rights.
9

§1 (1)
EXISTING LAW.

published drawings[1], and paintings[2], and unpublished photographs[3]. Where any such things are reproduced or published without the consent of the author or his representatives, he can recover damages, possession of copies, and an injunction from any person who has dealt with the infringements, and this notwithstanding that he was ignorant of the infringement[2]. The proprietary common law right in an unpublished document does not give the author and his representative an exclusive right of making any use of it, but is apparently confined to the right of multiplying copies of and publishing the literary or artistic matter contained therein[4]. That is to say, in so far as proprietary right is concerned the ambit of the common law right is probably much the same as the ambit of the statutory copyright. In addition to the proprietary right, the author of an unpublished document has the light to restrain any use of the document, or of the matter contained therein, which is a breach of contract or confidential relationship[5], and to restrain any third party who proposes, knowing the illegal source, to make use of information so obtained[6].

All common law proprietary right ceases on publication, and thereafter if the copyright statutes do not give protection, there is no property in the nature of copyright in the literary or artistic work[7]. The proprietor cannot, by means of notice of reservation printed in a published work, reserve to himself any monopoly not given to him by statute[8]. The utmost he can do in this direction is to contract with individual purchasers that they shall not make use of the work in a specified manner[8].

  1. ↑ Prince Albert v. Strange (1849), 1 McN. & G. 25; 2 De G. & Sm. 652.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mansell v. Valley Printing Co., [1908] 2 Ch. 441.
  3. ↑ Bowden Bros. v. Amalgamated Pictorials, [1911] 1 Ch. 386.
  4. ↑ Philip v. Pennell, [1907] 2 Ch. 577. See, however, Millar v. Taylor (1769), 4 Burr. 2303, 2379; Tonson v. Walker (1752), 3 Swans. 672; Prince Albert v. Strange (1849), 2 De G. & Sm. 652, 691, 693.
  5. ↑ Jovatt v. Winyard (1820), 1 Jac. & W. 394; Prince Albert v. Strange (1849), 2 De G. & Sm. 652; Renter's Telegram Co. v. Byron (1874), 43 L. J. Ch. 661; Lamb v. Evans, [1893] 1 Ch. 218; Merryweather v. Moore, [1892] 2 Ch. 518; Louis v. Smellie (1895), 11 T. L. R. 515; Robb v. Green, [1895] 2 Q. B. 315; Gilbert v. Star Newspaper (1894), 11 T. L. R. 4; Tack v. Priester (1887), 19 Q. B. D. 629; Murray v. Heath (1831), 1 B. & Ad. 804; Mayall v. Higbey (1862), 1 H. & C. 148; Pollard v. Photographic Co. (1888), 40 Ch. D. 345.
  6. ↑ Jeffreys v. Boosey (1854), 4 H. L. C. 815; Tipping v. Clarke (1843), 2 Hare, 383, 393; Abernethy v. Hutchinson (1825), 3 L. J. (0. S.) Ch. 209; Prince Albert v. Strange (1849), 2 De G. & Sm. 652; Exchange Telegraph v. Central News, [1897] 2 Ch. 48; Bridgman v. Green (1755), 2 Ves. sen. 627; Wilmot's Cases, 58; Morison v. Moat (1851), 9 Hare, 241; Barfield v. Nicholson (1824), 2 Sim. & Stu. 1.
  7. ↑ Donaldson v. Beckett (1774), 2 Bro. P. C. 129; Cob. Pari. Hist., Vol. 17, p. 954; Coleman v. Wathen (1793), 5 T. R. 245; Murray v. Elliston (1822), 5 B. & Aid. 657; Jeffreys v. Boosey (1854), 4H. L. C. 815; Reade v. Conquest (1861), 9 C. B. N. S. 755; Caird v. Sime (1887), 12 A. C. 326, 343, 344; Mansell v. Valley Printing Co., [1908] 2 Ch. 441, 447.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Monckton v. Gramophone Co. (1910), The Times, Dec. 6; Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Snellenburg (1904), 131 Fed. Rep. 530; McGruther v. Pitcher, [1904] 2 Ch. 306; Taddy v. Sterious, [1904] 1 Ch. 354.
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