The Internationalisation of Copyright Law

Technological developments have shaped copyright law’s development, and now the prospect of endless, effortless digital copying poses a significant challenge to modern copyright law. Many complain that copyright protection has burgeoned wildly, far beyond its original boundaries. Some have questioned whether copyright can survive the digital age. From a historical perspective, however, many of these ‘new’ challenges are simply fresh presentations of familiar dilemmas. This book explores the history of international copyright law, and looks at how this history is relevant today. It focuses on international copyright during the nineteenth century, as it affected Europe, the British colonies (particularly Canada), America, and the UK. As we consider the reform of modern copyright law, nineteenth-century experiences offer highly relevant empirical evidence. Copyright law has proved itself robust and flexible over several centuries. If directed with vision, Seville argues, it can negotiate cyberspace.

CATHERINE SEVILLE is Vice-Principal and Director of Studies in Law at Newnham College, and Herchel Smith College Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge.

The Internationalisaiton of Copyright Law

Books, Buccaneers and the Black Flag in the Nineteenth Century

Catherine Serville

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press,
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© Catherine Seville 2006

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the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2006

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

ISBN-13 978–0–521–86816–7 hardback

ISBN-10 0–521–86816–5 hardback

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Contents

Table of cases

Table of statutes

Abbreviated titles are given in the parantheses.