Literary Copyright Reform in Early Victorian England: The Framing of the 1842 Copyright Act

by Catherine Seville

• ISBN13: 9780521621755
• ISBN10: 0521621755
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Talfourd's first Copyright Bill was presented in 1837, and the public and Parliamentary controversy it provoked is reflected in contemporary pamphlets, correspondence, and hundreds of petitions presented to Parliament, as well as in the changing aims of the Bill itself. In addition to the expected debate as to the nature of literary property and the economic effects on the publishing trade, discussion of copyright law raised broader questions; the relative values of literature and science, the importance of public education, the dangers of monopolies, and the nature of public interest. In a period of social, political and technological upheaval, these were incendiary matters. Talfourd audaciously demanded not only a considerable extension of copyright term, but also international protection. This book explores and sets in context the making of the Copyright Act 1842, using it to illuminate enduring issues and difficulties in the legal concept of intellectual property.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	1	(32)
The 1842 Act -- passage and position	6	(3)
Copyright -- its nature and history	9	(7)
Talfourd and his aims	16	(3)
Conflicting rationales	19	(7)
Alternatives to copyright -- a profession of authorship?	26	(7)
Petitions and Copyright	33	(7)
Petitioning -- parliamentary history and background	33	(3)
Petitions -- forms and formalities	36	(1)
Petitions -- volume and subjects	37	(3)
Critics in Parliament	40	(28)
The radical nexus	40	(8)
Political cross-currents	48	(3)
Brougham	51	(9)
Macaulay	60	(8)
Critics in the Book Trade I: Print Workers and Their Allies	68	(32)
Printers	69	(12)
The dispute spreads -- journeymen 1839--40	81	(3)
The process of diffusion	84	(16)
Critics in the Book Trade II: Publishing and Publishers	100	(28)
The book trade and authors	101	(4)
Cheap publications -- the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge	105	(4)
Cheap publications -- the book trade	109	(2)
Cooperation and organisation	111	(4)
The campaign against the bills	115	(13)
The Campaign in the Daily Press	128	(21)
London dailies	132	(13)
Evening papers	145	(3)
Conclusion	148	(1)
Authors and the Beginnings of Authors' Organisations	149	(27)
Southey	153	(6)
Wordsworth -- campaign manager	159	(17)
The Making of the Case for the Bill	176	(34)
Petitions -- those in favour	176	(19)
The argument in the periodicals	195	(15)
Conclusion	210	(9)
Appendix I: Chronology of the bills	219	(2)
Appendix II: Successive versions of the bill	221	(37)
Appendix III: The Copyright Act 1842	258	(19)
Bibliography	277	(16)
Index	293