ven years
shall expire before the end of forty-two years from the first
publication of such book the copyright shall in that case endure for
such period of forty-two years; and that the copyright of every book
which shall be published after the death of its author shall endure for
the term of forty-two years from the first publication thereof, and
shall be the property of the proprietor of the author's manuscript from
which such book shall be first published and his assigns." The benefit
of the enlarged period was extended to subsisting copyrights, unless
they were the property of an assignee who had acquired them by purchase,
in which case the period of copyright would be extended only if the
author or his personal representative agreed with the proprietor to
accept the benefit of the act. By section 5 the judicial committee of
the privy council may license the republication of books which the
proprietor of the copyright thereof refuses to publish after the death
of the author. The sixth section provides for the delivery within
certain times of copies of all books published after the passing of the
act, and of all subsequent editions thereof, at the British Museum. And
a copy of every book and its subsequent editions must be sent _on
demand_ to the following libraries: the Bodleian at Oxford, the public
library at Cambridge, the library of the faculty of advocates in
Edinburgh, and that of Trinity College, Dublin. Other libraries (the
libraries of the four Scottish Universities, King's Inns, Dublin, and
Sion College) entitled to this privilege under the earlier acts had been
deprived thereof by an act passed in 1836, and grants from the treasury,
calculated on the annual average value of the books they had received,
were ordered to be paid to them as compensation. A book of registry is
ordered to be kept at Stationers' Hall for the registration of
copyrights, to be open to inspection on payment of one shilling for
every entry which shall be searched for or inspected. And the officer of
Stationers' Hall shall give a certified copy of any entry when required,
on payment of five shillings; and such certified copies shall be
received in evidence in the courts as prima facie proof of
proprietorship or assignment of copyright or licence as therein
expressed, and, in the case of dramatic or musical pieces, of the right
of representation or performance. False entries shall be punished as
misdemeanours. The entry is to record th