Donaldson v. Beckett

"Donaldson v. Beckett", 2 Brown's Parl. Cases 129, 1 Eng. Rep. 837; 4 Burr. 2408, 98 Eng. Rep. 257 (1774); 17 Cobbett's Parl. Hist. 953 (1813) is the ruling by the British House of Lords that denied the continued existence of a perpetual common law copyright and held that copyright was a creation of statute and could be limited in its duration.

Background

The first copyright statute was the Statute of Anne, 8 Anne c. 19 (1710), in which Parliament granted a fourteen year term for a copyright, renewable once. Parliament also provided a special grandfather clause allowing those works already published to enjoy twenty-one years of protection. When the twenty-one years were up, the booksellers--for copyrights were held by publishers and booksellers, not authors--asked for an extension. Parliament declined to grant it.

Thwarted by Parliament, the booksellers turned to the courts for relief. They attempted to secure a ruling that there was a natural right to ownership of the copyright under the common law. The booksellers arranged a collusive lawsuit, "Tonson v. Collins", but the courts threw it out. A real lawsuit was brought, "Millar v. Taylor" 4 Burr. 2303, 98 Eng. Rep. 201 (K.B. 1769), concerning infringement of the copyright on James Thomson's poem "The Seasons" by Robert Taylor, and the booksellers won a favorable judgment. (It helped that Lord Mansfield, the chief judge on the case, had previously been counsel to the booksellers.) An appeal was brought to the Lords, but the booksellers, fearing an adverse judgement there, settled.

"Donaldson v. Beckett" was brought regarding the same poem at issue in "Millar" and an injunction was granted by the trial court against the Scottish bookseller who had reprinted it. The Scottish Court of Sessions had held that there was no perpetual copyright. (35 The Scots Magazine 497 1773) An appeal was carried to the House of Lords, which functions as the United Kingdom's court of final appeal, in February 1774. Lord Camden, the Lord Chancellor, was scathing in his ruling in the Lords. "The arguments attempted to be maintained on the side of the respondents, were founded on patents, privileges, Star Chamber decrees, and the bye (sic) laws of the Stationers' Company; all of them the effects of the grossest tyranny and usurpation; the very last places in which I should have dreamt of finding the least trace of the common law of this kingdom; and yet, by a variety of subtle reasoning and metaphysical refinements, have they endeavored to squeeze out the spirit of the common law from premises in which it could not possibly have existence."

Legal issues

Thus the Lords rejected the notice of a perpetual copyright and held that it had not previously existed before the Statute of Anne and older works fall into the public domain and are available to everyone when the copyright term expires. "Knowledge has no value or use for the solitary owner: to be enjoyed it must be communicated," wrote Camden.

The Lords addressed the following questions:

1. "Whether, at common law, an author of any book or literary composition, had the sole right of first printing and publishing the same for sale, and might bring an action against any person who printed, published, and sold the same, without his consent? [ [http://www.copyrighthistory.com/donaldson.html The History of Copyright: Donaldson v. Beckett ] ]

The Lords answered this question in the affirmative with a vote of ten to one.

2. "If the author had such right originally, did the law take it away upon his printing and publishing such book or literary composition, and might any person afterward reprint and sell, for his own benefit, such book or literary composition, against the will of the author? [ [http://www.copyrighthistory.com/donaldson.html The History of Copyright: Donaldson v. Beckett ] ]

The Lords answered this question in the negative with a vote of seven to four.

3. "If such action would have lain at common law, is it taken away by the statute of 8th Anne: and is an author, by the said statute, precluded from every remedy except on the foundation of the said statute, and on the terms and conditions prescribed thereby?" [ [http://www.copyrighthistory.com/donaldson.html The History of Copyright: Donaldson v. Beckett ] ]

This question was answered affirmatively, six to five.

The resulting decision indicated that a common law perpetual copyright may have existed before the Statute of Anne was passed, but that any such right was entirely precluded by the statute. Perpetual copyright was thus effectively ended as a legal concept in Britain.

Influence

In 1834, the United States Supreme Court essentially followed the House of Lords' decision in "Donaldson" with "Wheaton v. Peters", rejecting any perpetual common law copyright in favor of the statutory instrument still in existence today..

References

* Paul Goldstein. "Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox." New York: Hill and Wang, 1994.
* Lawrence Lessig. " Free Culture". New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
* Lyman Ray Patterson. "Copyright in Historical Perspective". Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968.
* Lyman Ray Patterson and Stanley W. Lindberg. "The Nature of Copyright: A Law of Users' Rights". Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1991

External links

* [http://www.copyrighthistory.com/donaldson.html Full text of opinion]

ee also

*Copyright
*Copyright law of the United Kingdom
*History of copyright law
*List of leading legal cases in copyright law