Treasury Minute
Treasury Minute Dealing With the Copyright in Government Publications, August 31, 18871785
My Lords take into consideration the correspondence which has passed between the Treasury and the Stationery Office on the subject of Copyright in Government publications.
The law gives to the Crown, or the assignee of the Crown, the same right of copyright as to a private individual. Consequently, if a servant of the Crown, in the course of his duty for which he is paid, composes any document, or if a person is specially employed and paid by the Crown for the purpose of composing any document, the copyright in the document belongs to the Crown as it would in the case of a private employer.
The majority of publications issued under the authority of the Government have no resemblance to the works published by private publishers, and are published for the information of the public and for public use, in such manner as any one of the public may wish, and it is desirable that the knowledge of their contents should be diffused as widely as possible.
In other cases the Government publishes at considerable cost works in which few persons only are interested, but which are published for the purpose of promoting literature and science.
These works are of precisely the same character as those published by private enterprise.
In order to prevent an undue burden being thrown on the taxpayer by these works, and to enable the Government to continue the publication of works of this character to the same extent as heretofore, it is necessary to place them, as regards copyright, in the same position as publications by private publishers. If the reproduction of them, or of the most popular portions of them, by private publishers, is permitted, the private publisher will be able to put into his own pocket the profits of the work, which ought to go in relief of the general public, the taxpayers.
The question, then, is, what are the classes of works the reproduction of which is to be restricted, or to be left unrestricted?
Government publications may be classified as follows:
(1.) Reports of Select Committees of the two Houses of Parliament, or of Royal Commissions.
(2.) Papers required by Statute to be laid before Parliament, e. g., Orders in Council, Rules made by Government Departments, Accounts, Reports of Government Inspectors.
(3.) Papers laid before Parliament by Command, e. g., Treaties, Diplomatic Correspondence, Reports from Consuls and Secretaries of Legation, Reports of Inquiries into Explosions or Accidents, and other Special Reports made to Government Departments.
(4.) Acts of Parliament.
(5.) Official books, e. g., Queen’s Regulations for the Army or Navy.
(6.) Literary or quasi-literary works, e. g., the Reports of the Challenger Expedition, the Rolls Publication, the forthcoming State Trials, the “Board of Trade Journal.”
(7.) Charts and Ordnance Maps.
As respects the first five classes of publications, the reproduction of them, with certain exceptions, should not be restricted in any form whatever. Indeed, in most cases it is desirable that they should be made known to the public as widely as possible.
The first exception is, that Acts of Parliament and official books should not, except when published under the authority of the Government, purport on the face of them to be published by authority.
The second exception is, where a work of a literary or quasi-literary character comes accidentally within these classes. For example, the Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission would, but for the fact that they were produced under the direction of a Commission instead of under the Master of the Rolls, be published in the ordinary manner like the Rolls publications, and come within Class 6.
So, again, a Report to a Government Department may be laid before Parliament made by a person of eminent scientific knowledge who is willing to give the Government and the public the advantage of his knowledge, but not to allow it to be reproduced for the private benefit of an individual publisher. Mr. Whitehead’s Reports on Injurious Insects are an instance of this case.
Other exceptions will, no doubt, from time to time occur, which can only be dealt with as they arise.
As regards the sixth and seventh classes above mentioned, it seems desirable that the copyright in them should be enforced in the interests of the taxpayer, and of literature and science. For, as pointed out above, unless copyright is enforced, cheap copies of the works, or of the popular portion of them, can be produced by private publishers, who reap the profit at the expense of the taxpayer. And as such works are in any case a burden on the taxpayer, the greater the burden the fewer works can the Government, with justice to the taxpayer, undertake.
Notice of the intention to enforce the copyright in any work should be given to the public. In the case of future works this notice can be given by prefixing to the work a notice to the effect that the rights of copyright are reserved. In the case of past works it will be desirable to inform the publishing trade of the works the reproduction of which, without permission, is forbidden.
As respects Acts of Parliament, the Government, in obedience to the wishes of Parliament expressed by Select Committees, are bound to publish an edition of them by authority as cheaply as practicable, and a nearly similar remark applies to official publications. For this purpose the Comptroller of the Stationery Office shall be appointed Her Majesty’s Printer, but care will be taken not to infringe on any existing privileges granted by the Crown.
Let instructions be given to the Comptroller of the Stationery Office and to the Solicitor in pursuance of this Minute.