Star.
London, England, 1828-12-10 00:00:00

LAIN INItELLIGP.)ICL

COURT or ktmirs B Wastrahrma, D.
MURRAY tl LIMBIRD.
This was RU action brought hi Mr. Monty. of Afts
bemarle street, the pusiiilter of Lord Byron's works, to
ecover damages from the defetida, t f r having pirated
some of those works, t f•• hick the copyright belonged
to the rlaintiff.
Sat J. SCARLITT stated the plaintiffs case, and ob.
served that prooeitv of this kind was prinecte 1 by the
Acts of tie 431 and 44th of iota. 111 %fifth con•
terred the exclusive right r f the tops to such . errois
as the author mi,(ht convey it to for there. m of 14 yeas,
and if. at the termination of that period the author WAS
still living, th .n fur a farther term of 14 )ears, or during
the bletime of theallt‘lor if the same btmu 1.1 -xtend bra
ond '2B year!. The same Acts which give to the
author the right r f •lisposing pf his copyright, also con.
retied a right upon the person who purchased sr other-
wise procured it, to dispose of it rnr a valuable eonsit
deration. There was, perhaps, no &seri. ti rn r f pro-
perty so liable to be pillaged as that of copylight, and
more par: icul %sly so when the iron ks happened tot be es-
tremely popular, as was the case in the present in ranee.
The works of Lord Byron, or at leant that p..rti.to or
them of which the plaintiff had the copy iAht, were very
popular ; and the phi tiff in order to accommodate tf e
public, and to benefit the trade, hol published a cheap
edition, which was soli for 184. He had di•posed of
the copyright of this e.lttism .o • ther parties in the tr de.
and it was to protect them as well as himself that
he had brought the pee ent actin. The defendan.,
a res;:ectabla books-Her and publisher in the Straw.,
had published a woe k, which he called The Beauties of
Lard Aron, in which he not only nnide very co.
p.nus exit act- from some of the m st celebrated of the
I tiger po• m-, but actually published some of the minor
*pieces ent re. The effect of this publi: atom had been
to depress, sery materially, the sale of the plaintiff's
ditions of the works in question, and of those to wh sm
he had di•po ed of a part of the copyright. The de•
force which lie (Sir J mes Scarlett) oader•tood was to
he set up wa , that the wo• k which the defendant had
pub!is`led was a partial publication only; that it con-
sisted of extracts and abridgments; bet that defence
would be entirely un•ensble, for it would be shown th st
the extracts comprised the whole of the most ; °pular
parts of the best poems of Lord Byron, and the come
of some of the short pieces of ekquisi e meth. • Tl.*
Learned Counsel proceeded at some length in his ob-
servations upon the cha- octet of the defer ant's pub'i-
cati rs, which, he subroht d, was clearly piratical.
Lord TVITERDers ob -need, that it the pl •intiff could
make out that the el, fendst.t had publt,led even one
poem entire, there c•iuid be no 'colour f r the defence on
e ground of abridgme t.
M. BR voltam I- r the defendant, said his cl ent had
lost 751. by the site cu ation. The publication c •ukt not
therefore have been productive of any great ii jury to
the plaintiff. 1-1.: had, however, a proposition to make,
which, if accepted. would prevent the necessity of pro.
ceeding further in the acti n. 'Ter dition A. hick the
defendant had published was a stereotype, arid be was
now ts-illing to give up all the impressions in his pos.
session, amou ting to one halt of the wh• 1., and also
the stereotypes of the work, pi °vides! the plaintiff Mou Id
take a verdict for nominal damages, with costs.
Sir JAMES SCARLETT immediately acceded to the pen-
position, observing that the only object of the klaintiff
was to prt.tect his copyright.
Mr. BROUGHAM said that the defendant had befori
offered to give up all the c. pies that remained in his
r•ands. The edition was a very pretty one. but it did
not teem t' have suited the public taste. The • Ifsnsive
matter in the original poems having been omitted in
. the es. Beauties,' the work did n t .ell well.
A verdict was then entered for the plaintiff for the
damages laid in the declaration, to seduced to Is.
on the defendant's deli,. ring to the plaird.ff all the
stereotypes and impressions in his possession.