Mr. Justice North gave judgment in the case of Walter e. Steinkopff, which was a motion on the part of the' proprietors of the Times to restrain the proprietor and publisher of the St, James's Gazette from publishing or selling any copies of that paper containing matter which appeared in the Times of April 18th. The object of the leading journal was to obtain a decision upon the question of the existence of copyright in news items. The decision of Mr. Justice North reads:—It: is said that there is no copyright in news, but there is, and may be, in the particular form of language or-modes of expression by which information'is conveyed, and not the less so because the information may be with respect to the events of the days." Commenting on the case the Times says "The judgment of Mr. Justice North, livered yesterday in favour of the Times in the case of Walter v. Steinkopff, has pracically settled the most important question arising out of the law of copyright, so far as it affects newspapers, which has hitherto remained undetermined. It has now been authoritatively laid down: that the proteetion of literary products by copyright law extends fully over articles and news published in a newspaper. In.this instance, as in many others, the conductors of the Times have acted not only in defence of their own rights, but in the interests of the Press at large. Capital, skill, and literary ability are now so largely invested in journalistic enterprise of every kind that it/has become absolutely necessary to assert the rights of property against extensive, increasing, and unabashed depredation. For our own part we have long hesitated to take any action; and, in view of the uncertainty of the law, we their might long have continued to hesitate to call upon the Courts to intervene if any moderation or decency had been shown in the system of plunder adopted by some of our. contemporaries. But when it was found that the practice of certain evening papers was going on steadily from bad to worse, it became necessary to draw the line, somewhere, especially as pilfering was openly justified as well as audaciously caried out. This being the case, we cannot regret that the lot has fallen, by no choice of ours, upon a journal which has been, perhaps, the worst offender of all,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.