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COPYRIGHT IN DOMINION OF CANADA
661
All those Acts of Parliament, therefore, which were in force in Canada on July 1st, 1912, are still valid and subsisting in Canada. Those Acts, so far as they may affect copyright in motion pictures, are the Literary Copyright Act of 1842 and the International Copyright Act of 1886. 1
When the 1842 Act was passed the art of motion pictures was unknown, and there is no specific provision in that Act conferring copyright in motion pictures. Section II, however, in defining the meaning of the words “ dramatic piece,” (protected under that Act) as that phrase is used in the Act, provides that such phrase “shall be construed to mean and include every tragedy, comedy, play, opera, farce, or other scenic, musical, or dramatic entertainment.” While we know of no decision which holds that motion pictures are included within that definition, we believe that the provision is broad enough to include a motion picture, especially in view of the use of the words “scenic . . . entertainment” and “dramatic entertainment.”
The 1842 Act, while containing no express provision where publication was first to take place, was held to have intended first publication in the United Kingdom alone.2
The Act provides in Section XXIV that the copyrighted work shall be registered in the Book of Registry of the Stationers Company. ,
•See Black v. Imperial Book 4th Ed., p. 89; Chappell v. Purday Co. (Can.) (1904), 8 Ont. L. R. (Eng.) (1845), 4 W. & C. 485; 9; aff’d 35 Can. Sup. Ct. 488. Routledge v. Low (Eng.) (1865),
2 Copinger, Law of Copyrights, L. R. 3 H. L. 100.