# Statutes of Canada/1867-68/Chapter 56

CAP. LVI.
[Assented to 22nd May, 1868.]
Preamble.Whereas by an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed in the Session held in the tenth and eleventh years of Her Majesty's Reign, intituled: Imp. Act, 10. 11 V. c. 95. An Act to amend the Law relating to the protection in the Colonies of Works entitled to Copyright in the United Kingdom, it is provided, that in case the Legislature of any British Possession ​shall be disposed to make due provision for securing or protecting the rights of British Authors in such Possession, and shall pass an Act for that purpose, and transmit the same, in the proper manner, to the Secretary of State, in order that it may be submitted to Her Majesty, and in case Her Majesty should be of opinion that such Act is sufficient for the purpose of securing to British Authors reasonable protection within such Possession, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty to express Her Royal Approval of such Act, and thereupon, by Order in Council, to suspend, so long as the provisions of such Act shall continue in force in such Colony, the provision contained in the Imperial Acts in the said above recited Act mentioned, or in any other Acts, against the importing, selling, letting out to hire, exposing for sale or hire, or possessing, foreign reprints of books first composed, written, printed or published in the United Kingdom, and entitled to Copyright therein, and it is expedient to pass such Act as aforesaid, to the end that foreign reprints of such works may, under the provisions of the said Imperial Act, be lawfully imported into Canada, on conditions common to the whole Dominion, and to remove doubts as to the intent of the Act passed in the present Session of the Parliament of Canada, intituled:
Act of Canada, 31, V. c. 7.An Act imposing duties of Customs, with the Tariff of duties payable under it: Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:
Governor in Council may impose a duty on such Reprints of British Copyright Works for the benefit of the authors.1. It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to impose upon books imported into Canada, and being copies printed or reprinted in any other country than the United Kingdom, of books first composed or written, or printed or published in the United Kingdom, of which the Copyright shall be still subsisting, and with regard to which the notice to the Commissioners of Customs required by any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in that behalf, shall have been given, an ad valorem duty not exceeding twenty per cent., and, from time to time, to alter the said duty (not exceeding in any case the rate aforesaid), and, from time to time, to establish such regulations and conditions as may be consistent with any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom then in force, as he may deem requisite and equitable, with regard to the admission of such books; and to the distribution of the proceeds of such duty to or among the party or parties beneficially interested in the Copyright, and such duty shall be collected in like manner as duties of Customs, and under the provisions of the Acts relating to such duties.
Interpretation.2. The word "book" in this Act shall include every volume, part or division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letter press, sheet of music, map, chart or plan separately published.
When to come into force.3. The foregoing provisions of this Act (except in so far as it may be otherwise directed in any such order as aforesaid, of Her Majesty in Council,) shall come into operation upon, from ​and after the day to be appointed for that purpose, in any Proclamation of the Governor, signifying Her Majesty's Royal Approval of this Act, and the issuing of such order of Her Majesty in Council, and not before.
Former duty to remain until a duty is imposed under this Act.4. And it is hereby declared, that it was not the intent of the Act of the Parliament of Canada cited in the Preamble to this Act, that any duty imposed on foreign reprints of such British Copyright Books as are mentioned in the foregoing sections of this Act, by any Act of the late Province of Canada, or by any order of the Governor of that Province in Council made, or to be made under such Act, or by any Act of the Legislature of the Province of Nova Scotia or of New Brunswick, for the purpose of being distributed to or among the party or parties beneficially interested in the Copyright, should be repealed, and any such duty shall continue to be collected for the purposes aforesaid, until a duty shall be imposed for like purposes under this Act, after which it shall cease.
This work is in the public domain worldwide because it was prepared or published by or under the direction or control of the Canadian Government or any government department prior to 1974.
Section 12 of the Canadian Copyright Act provides a reservation for Crown rights or privileges. Lack of modern case law on the subject makes it unclear whether perpetual prerogative rights over these documents still apply, or whether these rights have lapsed. Notwithstanding, these documents are reproducible under the terms of the Reproduction of Federal Law Order.
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