Chapter XXII: Section I: The Crown

When the Crown ceased to have the complete control which it originally exercised over the printing-press, it still claimed to retain, as its prerogative, the exclusive right of printing such works as it considered its own peculiar property.[310] These included the authorised translation of the Bible, the Common Prayer Book, Acts of Parliament[311] and Proclamations,[312] Latin Grammars and Year Books. Law books, such as "Rolle's Abridgment," and reports collected by the judges were also claimed by the Crown on the ground that the laws were the King's Laws. Classical books, almanacs and the like, were claimed by the Crown as _bona nullius_ and things derelict. As regards those books which the Crown claimed as its own property, it granted licences and patents. The Stationers' Company, the King's printers, the Universities, and from time to time various individuals received grants of authority to print such works.

Many of the claims, for instance, to almanacs, law reports, Latin grammars, have for long been abandoned. The patentees of the Crown, however, still claim a prerogative copyright in--

1. The Authorised English Translation of the Bible.[313]
2. The Book of Common Prayer.[314]

The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the King's printers have each the right to print the Bible and the Prayer Book.

No objection has ever been taken on behalf of the Crown or her patentees to the printing of the Bible with notes, and this is in practice constantly done without authority. The notes, however, must be substantial and not merely illusory.[315]

In 1887 the Treasury published a Minute[316] in which the claims of the Crown to the exclusive right of publishing Government publications are set out. The Minute was published in the _London Gazette_.

The following publications are declared to be free from restriction of any kind, and any person may therefore publish them with or without notes:

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._ King's Regulations for the Army or Navy.

In the following works the Government claims to retain the copyright:

1. Literary or quasi-literary works, _e. g._ the Reports of the
_Challenger_ Expedition, the Rolls Publications, the State Trials,
the "Board of Trade Journal."
2. Charts and Ordnance Maps.

The ancient prerogative claimed by the Crown was a perpetual copyright. The Crown is not mentioned in the Copyright Act, and it is open to doubt whether it could enforce a perpetual copyright in works compiled by its servants, or whether it could only claim the term of copyright granted by the Copyright Act.