J.M. Barrie gave Peter Pan to a children's hospital, and Parliament made the hospital's royalty permanent

In 1929 Great Ormond Street Hospital in London asked Barrie to join a building committee. He declined, saying he hoped to find another way to help. Two months later the board learned he had given the hospital the rights to Peter Pan. Under ordinary UK law the copyright would have ended in 1987, 50 years after his death. Former Prime Minister Lord Callaghan proposed an amendment to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. It gave the hospital a unique right to royalties from stage performances, publications, films and other adaptations of Peter Pan in the UK, in perpetuity. The provision is section 301 of the Act^†. The right does not apply abroad. In Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan the copyright has expired. The hospital has received Peter Pan royalties for more than 90 years. Barrie had no children of his own^†; he had become guardian of the five Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired the story^†. The hospital does not publish the yearly amount^†.