Copyright: Its History and Its Law

This book captures a pivotal legal moment. In 1909 and 1911, America and Britain rewrote their copyright laws for the first time in generations, trying to answer questions that would prove startlingly prescient: Who owns ideas? How long should creators control their work? And in an age of mass reproduction, what do authors actually deserve? R.R. Bowker wrote this comprehensive guide as both practitioner and advocate. As the founder of Publishers Weekly and a lifelong champion of authors' rights, he understood copyright not as abstract law but as the economic foundation of literary culture. He traces copyright from its Tudor origins through the Statute of Anne to the landmark legislative battles of his own era. The book examines the 1909 American Copyright Code and the 1911 British Act in granular detail, explaining what changed, what was sacrificed, and what debates remain unresolved. For anyone wrestling with intellectual property in the digital age, Bowker's account is revelatory. The conflicts he documents, creator versus publisher, national interest versus international cooperation, protection versus access, are the same conflicts that define copyright debates today. This is not merely historical curiosity. It is the origin story of every law governing what you can share, remix, or own online.