A notice of the law of copyright would be incomplete which did not advert to some other compositions which receive from statute a protection analogous to that of literature. Such are engravings, etch ings, and prints, maps and charts, designs for articles of manufacture, and sculpture of all kinds. These resemble written works as regards the incorporeal right in them accruing to the author by the exer tion of his mental powers in their produc tion, but differ as they also require a good deal of his manual skill and labour, and are therefore his property upon the same general principles as any other ma nufacture. Such productions therefore are el en more plainly entitled to the pro tection of the law than books.
The chief statutes affecting the copy right in the arts of designing, engraving, and etching prints, are the 8 Geo. II. c. 13, which vests it in the inventor, de signer, and proprietor, for fourteen years from the first publication, and enforces this provision against any person pirating the same by forfeiture of the plate and prints, and a fine of 5s. for each print, to be recovered by action within three months of the discovery of the offence. The 7 Geo. III. c. 38, extends the term of copyright to twenty-eight years ; and in addition to the subjects of the former statute, includes maps, charts, and plans, under the same condition& It also ex tends the time of bringing an action for the penalties to six mouths. The 17 Geo. III. e. 57, gives the owner of the copyright a further remedy of action for damages and double costs within the same limits of time. The 6 & 7 Will. IV. ex tends the provisions of the previous acts to Ireland.
With regard to models, casts, and other sculptures, the 38 Geo. III. c. 71, vests the right and property in these for fourteen years in the proprietor, and gives him a special action on the case against the offender, if brought within six months. These provisions were rendered more effectual by 54 Geo. III. c. 56, by which double costs were given, and an additional term of fourteen years superadded in case the maker should be living at the end of the first term.
As to sculpture certainly, but more doubtfully as to prints, for there have been conflicting decisions on the point, the work must bear upou it the name of the maker and the date of publication to entitle it to the protection of the law.
With regard to designs for manufac tured articles. the 27 Geo. III. e. 38, con tinued by 29 Geo. III. c. 19, and con firmed and made perpetual by 34 Geo. III. c. 23, gave the sole right of using a new pattern in the printing of linens, cottons, calicoes, and muslins for three months; and the 2 Vict. c. 13, extended this privilege to designs for printing other woven fabrics besides calicoes. The 2 Viet. c. 17, regulated copyright of designs in all articles except lace, and the articles to which the above-mentioned acts apply. But all these statutes were repealed by the 5 & 6 Vict. c. 100 (Mr. Emerson Ten nent's Act), which considerably extended the periods of copyright in designs.
This act distributes articles to which designs may be applied into twelve classes : 1. Articles of manufacture composed wholly or chiefly of any metal or mixed metals.
2. Articles of manufacture composed wholly or chiefly of wood.
3. Articles of manufacture composed wholly or chiefly of glass.
4. Articles of manufacture composed wholly or chiefly of earthenware.
5. Paper-hangings.
6. Carpets.
7. Shawls, where the design is applied solely by printing, or by any other pro cess by which colours are or may here after be produced upon tissue or textile fabrics.
8. Shawls not comprised in class 7.
9. Yarn, thread or warp, the design being applied by printing, or by any other process by which colours are or may hereafter be produced.
10. Woven fabrics, composed of linen, cotton, wool, silk, or hair, or of any two or more of such materials, if the design be applied by printing, or by any other process by which colours are or may hereafter be produced upon tissue or tex tile fabrics ; except the articles included in class 11.
11. Woven fabrics composed of linen, cotton, wool, silk, or hair, or of any two or more of such materials, if the design be applied by printing, or by any other process by which colours are or may hereafter be produced upon tissue or tex tile fabrics, such woven fabrics being or coming within the description technically called furnitures, and the repeat of the design whereof shall be more than twelve inches by eight inches.
12. Woven fabrics not comprised in any preceding class.
13. Lace, and any article of manufac ture or substance not comprised in any preceding class.