§ MR. MACFIEasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any negotiations with Foreign Governments are now in progress on the subject of copyright; whether these negotiations extend beyond literary and artistic copyright, and, whether they are based on the principle of exclusive privileges?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDSir, a negotiation is now in progress with the German Empire on the subject of copyright. The proposed Treaty will be merely a consolidation of the existing Conventions with Prussia, and will not in any respect go beyond the present law of this country on international copyright, but it will have the advantage of extending to the whole German Empire. Several Bills have been brought before the Congress of the United States for authorizing arrangements of international copyright, which have not escaped the attention of Her Majesty's Government; but none have been passed, and it cannot, therefore, be said that we are as yet in negotiation with the United States on the subject.