Art and Modern Copyright
The Contested Image

The first in-depth study of the history of copyright protecting the visual arts.

Elena Cooper (Author)

9781316631430, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2022

317 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.462 kg

'Through its thematic breadth, the book meticulously analyzes different aspects of copyright law and its developments. Despite the fact that the book is highly dependent on study about UK law, the book does a great job in unpacking how social and economic context are closely related to the history of artistic copyright in general. For the those interested in investigating what purposes copyright ultimately serves, Dr. Cooper's Art and Modern Copyright can be a great guidebook.' Sophie Chung, Center for Art Law

This book is the first in-depth and longitudinal study of the history of copyright protecting the visual arts. Exploring legal developments during an important period in the making of the modern law, the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, in relation to four themes - the protection of copyright 'authors' (painters, photographers and engravers), art collectors, sitters and the public interest - it uncovers a number of long-forgotten narratives of copyright history, including views of copyright that differ from how we think today. As well as considering the distinct nature of the contribution of copyright to the history of the cultural domain accounted for by scholars of art history and the sociology of art, this book examines the value to lawyers and policy-makers today of copyright history as a destabilising influence: in taking us to ways of thinking that differ from our own, history can sharpen the critical lens through which we view copyright debates today.

1. Introduction
2. Art, copyright and 'authors', 1: 1850–62
3. Art, copyright and 'authors', 2: 1862–11
4. Art, copyright and collectors: the wrongs that artists commit
5. Art, copyright and the face: a nineteenth-century publicity right
6. Art, copyright and the public interest: galleries, printsellers and 'pirates'
7. Drawing conclusions: images of art and images of copyright.

Subject Areas: Intellectual property law [LNR], Social & cultural history [HBTB]