Walter V. Lane Case Study

The United Kingdom, the traditional doctrine of Sweat of the brow is followed. This doctrine gives the copyright to the author if these three elements are involved in his work

a. Labor

b. Skill

c. Judgment

This doctrine has been applied from time to time in UK case laws. One of the earliest case law in this regard is Walter v. Lane . The brief facts of the case are that The Earl of Roseberry who was a prominent politician gave speeches. Reporters from the Times Newspapers took the shorthand notes of the speeches, transcribed them into their own words and published in the newspaper. The respondent in this case i.e. Lane took the pieces of these articles and published them in a book. The main question of Law in front of House of Lords was whether the reporters could be considered authors in this case or not.

The house of Lords with the decision of

Thus the reporters were considered to be authors in this judgment.

Then came a milestone decision in the UK copyright history University of London Press Ltd v. University Tutorial Press Ltd; 1916 . In this case the court had to consider whether what could be included in the category of original work under the Copyright Act, 1911. The case dealt with examination papers which were written for the University of London back in 1915. Under the University of London's senate's decision all examination papers created by appointed examiners would belong to the University, aside from drawings, and the University reserved all rights to reproduce those exams without any extra compensation to the examiners who had written them. Subsequently examiners were appointed for the exam period held in September of that year, among which were Mr. Jackson