(This post was first published as part of Copyright Alliance’s Secret History of Copyright Series) “This copyright bill is the doing as we would be done by.” — Walt Whitman, 1891— Upon passage of the international copyright law just about a year before his death, Walt Whitman’s comment (quoted in Part I) included this refrain of the Golden Rule, about ...
(This post was first published as part of Copyright Alliance’s Secret History of Copyright Series) “Publishers move without concert, harmony, or agreement. There is no law to regulate their rights, and they have none (which are respected) by courtesy. They print the same book, and the spirit of competition is such as to destroy all correctness, all taste, and all chance ...
My generation was raised on Schoolhouse Rock!. As such, we were not only told that America is a Melting Pot but were reminded of this on a regular basis in a song from that animated series, the melody of which is now ringing in the heads of any fellow Gen-Xers reading this post. Of course, the more mature truth is ...
In his book At Home, Bill Bryson describes how the English clergy system, through the 18th and 19th centuries produced a local renaissance in the sciences and arts. By that time period, the English were not an especially pious bunch, and as such the clergy system fostered a generation of well-educated and financially comfortable young men who ended up with ...
For your consideration: In this article reposted from Jacobin on Salon.com, Gavin Mueller aims to place Internet piracy of intellectual property in context to 17th and 18th century piracy on the high seas. Aside from overly romanticizing classic pirates in my opinion, it’s a well-written piece, although I do find its thesis a bit unclear until the final paragraph. Bottom ...
