Whereas is it expedient to amend the law relating to copyright, and to afford greater encouragement to the production of literary works of lasting benefit to the world: Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from the passing of this Act an Act passed in the eighth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Anne, intituled An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies during the Times therein mentioned; and also an Act passed in the forty-first year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act for the further Encouragement of Learning in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, by securing the Copies and Copyright of printed Books to the Authors of such Books, or their Assigns, for the Time therein mentioned; and also an Act passed in the fifty-fourth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act to amend the several Acts for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies and Copyright of printed Books to the Authors of such Books, or their Assigns, be and the same are hereby repealed, except so far as the continuance of either of them may be necessary for carrying on or giving effect to any proceedings at law or in equity pending at the time of passing this Act, or for enforcing any cause of action or suit, or any right or contract, then subsisting.