"(Sec. 40.) That in all actions, suits, or proceedings under this Act, except when brought by or against the United States or any officer thereof, full costs shall be allowed, and the court may award to the prevailing party a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs."
It seems impracticable and undesirable to attempt in this chapter a statement of the procedure under former copyright laws in this country, or under the legal methods in vogue in other countries, for which the legal authorities on local procedure and practice should be consulted.
The new British measure provides the usual civil remedies of injunction, damages, account and costs in the discretion of the court. The author, or if no author the publisher whose name is indicated on the work, is _prima facie_ recognized as owner unless the contrary is proved. Infringing copies or plates become the property of the copyright owner. If the infringer proves ignorance, only an injunction will hold. In architectural works, after construction has been commenced, damages and not an injunction are provided for. Actions must be commenced within three years. Summary conviction is provided for in the case of any person knowingly and for profit or trade making, offering, distributing, exhibiting or importing infringing copies or making or having in possession infringing plates with penalty of a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, or in case of a second offense, imprisonment not exceeding two months, as also destruction or delivery up to owner of the copyright. The summary provisions of the musical copyright acts of 1902 and 1906 remain unrepealed.
Under previous law there had been two notable cases of criminal punishment for conspiracy. In 1906, _Re_ Willets against a combination among cheap music publishers, where the Common Serjeant sentenced the vendors to nine months' imprisonment, and in 1910, _Re_ Bokenham, where pirates who had conspired to print surreptitiously obtained copies of Oscar Wilde's poem "De Profundis," were also sentenced to six months and lesser periods.
The right to import a copyrighted book and, conversely, the right to exclude importation are rights incident to the general "exclusive right" of an author or copyright proprietor. This is recognized, in terms or inferentially, in the copyright law of most countries; and the American copyright code is exceptional and almost without precedent, save that of the preceding American law of 1891, in specifically permitting the importation of copyrighted books in stated cases, without the consent or authority of the copyright proprietor.