ENGLISH AND COPYRIGHT IN LITERARY AND DRAMATIC WORKS BEING A CONCISE DIGEST OF THE LAWS REGULATING COPYRIGHT IN SOME OF THE CHIEF COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD, TOGETHER WITH AN BY SIDNEY JERROLD OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW INTRODUCTION. Ir is not always that the legislator can derive any practical benefit from a study of foreign laws on a subject which engages his attention. It is obvious that where law is the direct outcome of national character and peculiarities it is scarcely fitted for any country but its own. Where, however, it is, so to say, quite extraneous and artificial, as is the case with copyright law, a foreign legal system may usefully be studied for the purposes of comparison. It would be to waste paper and ink to dwell on the importance, to all classes, of the law of copyright. It is at present engaging the attention of many countries besides our own. Three years ago an Association 1 was founded whose chief object is to promote the improvement of 1 The International Literary Association, founded at Paris in 1878, where and when it held a congress. A similar congress was held at London in 1879, at Lisbon in 1880, and is to be held at Vienna this year. |