The Copyright Bill was read a second time in the
House of Lords on Tuesday. Lord Haldane pointed out that it pro- vided an almost complete code of Copyright law, that it provided for international copyright, and that it laid the foundation for a uniform system throughout the Empire. Lord Courtney, while admitting that these were great advan- tages, said that he doubted the necessity for extending the length of literary copyright in all cases to fifty years after the author's death. The present length of time gave an amply sufficient remuneration to authors, and, moreover, he was inclined to think that the Bill would benefit the pub- lishers more than the authors. In the course of further discussion Lord Cromer laid stress upon the grievance of publishers in having to send free copies of books to the various public libraries. The Bill provided that a sixth library (that in Wales) was to be added to the number. Lord Cromer believed that in the case of expensive books this might be a hardship upon the publisher.
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