Stockdale v Onwhyn
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 11 January 1826 |
| Date | 11 January 1826 |
| Court | High Court |
English Reports Citation: 172 E.R. 75
COURTS OF KING'S BENCH AND COMMON PLEAS.
Subsequent proceedings with annotations, 5 B & C. 173
2 CAR. ft P. 163 STOCKDALE V. ONWHYN 75 Jan. llth, 1826. stockdale v. onwhyn. (No action can be maintained for pirating a work which professes to be the amours of a courtezan, and it is no answer to the objection that the defendant is also a wrong doer in publishing them, and that he therefore ought not to set up their immorality. Semble, that a person being seen correcting the MS. is not sufficient evidence that the copyright of a work is his.) [Subsequent proceedings with annotations, 5 B & C. 173 ] Case for pirating a work, published by the plaintiff, entitled " Memoirs of Harriette Wilson (a)." Plea-General issue. ment applied only to wages in the strict sense, and not to collateral perquisites, which might be agreed on. But the Court said, that it was impossible to consider this perquisite in any other light than as wages ; and that, if it were otherwise, it would be the means of evading the statute. (a) The statute 54 Geo lit. c. 156, s. 4, recites that, by an Act of the eighth year of Queen Anne, and the forty-first year of his late majesty's reign, " the author of any book or books, and the assignee or assigns of such author, respectively, should have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such book or books for the term of fourteen years, to commence from the day of first publishing the same, and no longer , and it was provided, that after the expiration of the said term of fourteen years, the right of printing or disposing of copies should return to the authors thereof, if they were then living, for another term of fourteen years : And whereas it will afford further encouragement to literature, if the duration of such copyright were extended in manner hereinafter mentioned ; Be it further enacted, that, from and after the passing of this Act, the author of any book or books composed and not printed and published, or which shall hereafter be composed, and be printed and published, and his assignee or assigns, shall have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such book or books for the full term of twenty-eight years, to commence from the day of first publishing the same, and also, if the author shall be living at the end of that period, for the residue of his natural life ; and that if any bookseller or printer, or other person whatsoever, in any part of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in the Isles of Man, Jersey or Guernsey, or in any other part of the British dominions, shall, from and after the passing of this Act, within the terms and times granted and limited by this Act as aforesaid, print, reprint or import, or shall cause to be printed, rerprinted or imported, any such book or books, without the consent of the author or authors, or other proprietor or proprietors of the copyright of and in such book and books, first had and obtained in writing ; or, knowing the same to be so printed, reprinted or imported, without such consent of such author or authors, or other proprietor or proprietors, shall sell, publish or expose to sale, or cause to be sold, published or exposed to sale, or shall have in his or their possession for sale, any such book or books, without such consent first had and obtained as aforesaid, then such offender or offenders shall be liable to a special action on the case, at the suit of the author or authors, or other proprietor or proprietors of...
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Wright v Tallis and Another
...character of the book, the publisher is without^the protection of the law-as in Stockdale v. Onwhyn (5 B. & C. 173, 7 D. & E. 625, 2 C. & P. 163), Poplett v.\0nwhyn (E. & M. 337), Hime v. Dale (11 East, 244, n., 2 Campb. 27, n.), Fores v. Johnes (4 Esp. N. P. C. 97), and Gale v. Leckie (2 S......
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Stockdale against Onwhyn
...108 E.R. 65 IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH. Stockdale against Onwhyn S. C. 7 D. & R. 625; 4 L. J. K. B. O. S. 122; and at Nisi Prius, 2 Car. & P. 163. 5 B. & C. 174. STOCKDALE V. ONWHYN 65 stockdale against onwhyn. Friday, January 27tb, 1826. The first publisher of a libellous or immoral work......