§ Mr. Jannerasked the President of the Board of Trade when it is the intention of His Majesty's Government to ratify the Brussels Copyright Convention, 1948; and what action is to be taken in connection with such ratification about the conditions on which the United Kingdom delegation accepted the provisions of Article 11 of that convention, and about the machinery to be established under Article 13 whereby a competent authority will have to be established to determine, in the absence of agreement, what is the just remuneration of authors in respect of the recording or public performance of their work.
§ Mr. H. WilsonIn reply to the first and second parts of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave yesterday to my hon. Friend the hon. and gallant Member for Great Yarmouth184W (Squadron Leader Kinghorn). As regards that part of the Question which refers to Article 13 of the Convention, provision is already made in Section 19 (3), as amended, of the Copyright Act, 1911, fixing the rate of royalty to be paid, failing agreement, in respect of the making of gramophone records of a musical work under the conditions laid down in that Section. In the case of the public performance of a musical work by means of such records, however, no reservations or conditions have been imposed by the law of the United Kingdom on the author's exclusive right, and consequently the amount of royalty to be paid in respect of such performances must be settled by agreement between the parties.