The Imperial Effect: Literary Copyright Law in Colonial Australia

Abstract

This article traces the application, operation and development of copyright law regarding literary works in colonial Australia. It examines the reception of the Literary Copyright Act 1842 (UK) and the Foreign Reprints Act 1847 (UK), exploring early (unsuccessful) attempts to liberalize the Australian book trade by allowing foreign imports of UK-copyright works. It also analyzes the development of colonial copyright legislation from the 1860s, using parliamentary debates and media commentary to explore contemporary attitudes to copyright policy. These inquiries reveal that the Australian colonies were unique throughout the empire in their insistence on toeing the imperial copyright line, in ways that were frequently contrary to the interests of colonial authors and readers.That the provisions of the various acts of the Imperial Parliament for securing to British authors and artists the copyright of their works should only be strictly enforced in these colonies is only consonant with justice and equity. In this, as in the ordinary business of our daily lives, honesty is the best policy. Our kindred in the United States have unwisely pursued an opposite course, and have paid the penalty accordingly … We are far from disparaging the literary genius of the American people … but the number is inconsiderable by comparison with the number of those who have acquired a distinguished reputation in the literary and scientific world of Great Britain. And one of the principle reasons for the discrepancy is the repressive and discouraging

An Old Law for a New Literature: Authors, Publishers and the Early Years of the Victorian Copyright Act 1869

“…The copyright debates leading up to the 1842 Act were widely reported in Australian colonial press, which endorsed the expansion of copyright protection for authors in the Act but regretted its failure to reach authors who published locally in the colonies. 18 Before the enactment of copyright legislation by Australian colonial legislatures, Australian authors received copyright protection under imperial copyright law in place at the time. 19 Under the 1842 Act, as confirmed by the House of Lords in Routledge v Low (1868), 20 that protection was only available to Australian authors who first published their work in the United Kingdom.…”

“…A heightened awareness of this limitation and the lack of reciprocal protection for works published in the colonies are evident in the widespread reporting and public commentary in the Australian colonial press regarding the introduction of the 1842 Act. 21 Despite this limitation and public resistance to it, domestic copyright legislation developed comparatively late in the nineteenth century in Australia compared with other imperial colonies. 22 This relationship between imperial and domestic copyright legislation served to reinforce the commercial and cultural dominance of the UK publishing industry.…”