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

This text was the first study of the controversial bills leading to the Copyright Act 1842.

Catherine Seville (Author)

9780521621755, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 September 1999

314 pages
24 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.55 kg

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.

1. Introduction: the 1842 Act - passage and position
Copyright - its nature and history
Talfourd and his aims
Conflicting rationales
2. Petitions and copyright: Petitioning - parliamentary history and background
Petitions
forms and formalities
Petitions
volume and subjects
3. Critics in Parliament: The Radical nexus
Political cross-currents
Brougham
Macaulay
4. Critics in the book trade I: print workers and their allies: Printers
Master Printers
Journeymen
Compositors
Pressmen
Machinemen
The dispute spreads - journeymen 1839–40
The process of diffusion
Associated trades
Bookbinders
Papermakers
Other print-related specialisms
Supporters of cheap print
Camp followers
5. Critics in the book trade II: publishing and publishers: the book trade and authors
Cheap publications: the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
Cheap Publications - the book trade
Co-operation and organisation
The campaign against the bills
Publisher's petitions
Other means of protest
6. The campaign in the daily press
London dailies
The Times
The Morning Chronicle
The Morning Post
Evening Papers
The Globe
The Courier
7. Authors and the beginnings of authors' organisations: Southey
Wordsworth: campaign manager
The making of the case for the bill: petitions in favour
The argument in the periodicals
9. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Intellectual property law [LNR]