The Internationalisation of Copyright Law: Books, Buccaneers and the Black Flag in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge Intellectual Property and Information Law) [Hardcover]

Catherine Seville (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Review of the hardback: 'This is a work of colossal research, invaluably distilled. Catherine Seville has shot new light though the notoriously turgid water of copyright history, in chronicling the emergence of the global copyright regime. The internationalisation of Copyright Law not only joins a specialist debate over contemporary legal reform but also makes a major contribution to the history of the book. Anyone investigating the post-1800 book trade in Britain, Europe, or North America will benefit from this compendious account, wonderfully summarised and exhaustingly documented, of the changed definition of property texts. ...Catherine Seville's The Internationalisation of Copyright Law is a monumental accomplishment. It is undeniable that there is a vast historical canopy supplied here, in which many smaller studies will build their nests.' Papers of the Biographical Society of Canada

Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 370 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (December 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521868165
• ISBN-13: 978-0521868167
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,837,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A History that May be Relavant to the Future, January 15, 2007

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Internationalisation of Copyright Law: Books, Buccaneers and the Black Flag in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge Intellectual Property and Information Law) (Hardcover)

This book is primarily a book on the history of copyright laws and how they have been forced to change as technological developments have occurred. A simple history would be one thing, but this book further asserts that this history is relavant to the present day technological challenges. The book looks at the present challenges to the international system as 'fresh presentations of familiar dilemmas which copyright law has attempted to address in the past.'

The history, as presented here, does show a remarkable set of similar problems, but they all seem to address a lawful, reasonable world rather than the anarchy that I see in the Internet.

For instance, a few years ago a web server I was running was all of a sudden using an incredible amount of bandwidth. Neither I nor the teckies could find out why. Then we got a letter from an attorney of one of the movie companies. My server was being used to send out copies of a front run movie. Based on this we were able to find that someone had surrepticiously loaded a program onto my server to do this. We then stopped it.

But from a legal standpoint how do you control this. The bad guy could have been from Africa, China or across town, there was no way to tell. There are 'outlaw' countries that would not help to enforce copyrights - Korea and Iran come to mind. There are countries where enforcement is so lax that no one would care - most of Africa.

This is an excellent history and does have some applicability to the control of things like printed books.