Copyright in Historical Perspective

by L. Ray Patterson

Overview

First published in 1968, Copyright in Historical Perspective remains one of the most important histories of early copyright traditions and laws. Starting in the late 15th century and going through the late 19th century, Lyman Ray Patterson traces the regulation of publishing in Europe and the United States and the threats to fair use and public domain caused by shifting understandings of copyright law.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826513731
Publisher:	Vanderbilt University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1968
Series:	Vintage Vanderbilt
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Lyman Ray Patterson (1929-2003) was a law professor, copyright scholar, and a historian. He joined the faculty of the Vanderbilt University Law School in 1963 and taught there for a decade. He later went on to serve as Dean at the Emory University School of Law.

He is the namesake of the American Library Association’s “L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award,” which “recognizes contributions of an individual or group that pursues and supports the Constitutional purpose of the U.S. Copyright Law, fair use, and the public domain.”
 

Table of Contents

	Preface	v
1	Overview	3
2	Prelude: Early Government Press Control	20
3	The Stationers' Company	28
4	The Stationer's Copyright	42
5	The Printing Patent	78
6	Copyright and Censorship	114
7	The Statute of Anne	143
8	Copyright in England from 1710 to 1774	151
9	The Early American Copyright	180
10	The Wheaton Case	203
11	The Continuing Discontent	213
12	Copyright in Historical Perspective	222
Appendix I.	Printing Patents	231
Appendix II.	Star Chamber Decrees	235
	Table of Cases	255
	Selected Bibliography	257
	Index	261

Editorial Reviews

The major contributions made by lawyers to the history of copyright date from the late 1960s when, within a year of each other, two American scholars, Benjamin Kaplan and Lyman Ray Patterson, published their works. Of these two books Patterson’s offers the most detailed account of the development of copyright.

European Intellectual Property Review

"The major contributions made by lawyers to the history of copyright date from the late 1960s when, within a year of each other, two American scholars, Benjamin Kaplan and Lyman Ray Patterson, published their works. Of these two books Patterson's offers the most detailed account of the development of copyright." -- "European Intellectual Property Review"

From the Publisher