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The Copyright Act adopted
March 20 (April 2) 1911 was adopted the Copyright Act- the first independent regulatory act in Russian history, intended to regulate relations in the area of copyright. The approved law was an important event as it reflected the latest trends in Western legislations on copyright.
In Russia before the 19th century the relations between author and publisher were not subject to legal regulation. The first legislative act regarding the copyright was Censorial charter of 1828. According to it the author or translator of the book possessed the ‘exclusive right to use his edition at his discretion for the entire life the property being entirely acquired’.
After that the legislation had been gradually extending the copyright recognized by law. In the end of the 19th century it became necessary to adopt a new law that would correspond to the requirements of the time and the situation.
The Copyright Act 1911 in general was in line with European legislation and European practice - it reflected the progressive ideas of the German laws of 1901 and 1907, the Berne Convention in its Berlin edition of 1908. However, it had a traditional for the Russian copyright low level of protection of authors' rights.
Under the Act copyright covered literary works, both written and oral (speech, lectures, essays, reports, messages, sermons, etc.), musical works, including the musical improvisations; photographic and artistic works (painting, engraving and other graphic arts, sculpture and architecture); as well as geographical, astronomical and other kinds of maps, globes, atlases, images of science, construction and other technical plans, drawings, sketches and similar works.
The general part of the Act explained the essential notions: the scope of the defended objects, the expiration date of the copyright, the issues of legal continuity, possible violation of copyright and means of defense, etc. Particular chapters of the law covered the copyright for different kinds of works.
One of the chapters regulated the main rules and terms of publishing agreement. Also there were made the restrictions for the agreements in regards of the future works.
For the first time was legalized the right of authors to translate their works, which was in effect for 10 years from the date of original publication. Legislator refused the expression "literary artistic property", replacing it with the notion of "exclusive rights".
Regarding some of the aspects the law did not follow the international practice. For instance there were no restrictions regarding the translation of foreign works; the motion picture works were not defended under the law, etc.
In 1917 the Statute on copyright of 1911 was abolished. Besides there was adopted a whole range of decrees of the Central Executive Committee and the Soviet of People’s Commissars most of which established the state monopoly for scientific, literary and art works.
Lit.: Беляцкин С. А. Новое авторское право в его основных принципах. СПб., 1912; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.allpravo.ru/library/doc1972p/instrum1973/; Гришин Д. Ю. Эволюция авторского права: от зарождения до наших дней // Проблемы юридической науки в исследованиях докторантов, адъюнктов и соискателей. Вып. 7, т. 1. Н. Новгород, 2001; Нагорный Р. С. История развития норм о свободном использовании объектов авторских и смежных прав до принятия четвёртой части Гражданского кодекса Российской Федерации // Журнал российского права. 2010. № 2; Силенок М. А. Авторское право. М., 2006.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: