Apr 30th 2016, 09:56

HOW COPYRIGHT HAS EMERGED AS A SUBSTANTIVE LAW AREA IN ITS OWN RIGHT!

An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

Anyone remotely involved or interested in how the law of copyright has developed in our new IT age will find this book a magnificent journey through special parts of our common law history. The editors begin by saying that the study of copyright’s history dates back almost to the birth of copyright “as a statutory construct” which will help us all as legal historians.

The editors also consider the importance of what a ‘handbook’ is for, using the OED definition of “a book small enough to be easily portable and intended to be kept close to hand” and that is what you have here! Produced in less than 500 pages, they look at the emergence of copyright during the common law copyright debates of the 18th century, moving to the lawyer’s texts of 19th century and then a move of copyright to “outside the legal academy in 20th century” because many more people have become intimately involved in this fascinating subject.

The starting point for copyright can be seen with Kaplan’s Carpentier Lectures in 1966 and his work “An Unhurried View of Copyright” where he actually talked about the ‘communications revolution of our time’ which is now 50 years ago and unfortunately we remember it all so well!

As the 17 contributors rightly say there has been an “explosion of interest in recent years regarding the origin and of intellectual property law”. They conclude that the study of copyright history, in particular, has grown remarkably since 1990s, with a flurry of activity since 2005.

So what exactly is “copyright” today. It is best described as “ an exclusive right which vests in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works as well as broadcasts, films, sound recordings and typographical arrangements” so the list is pretty big and expanding with IT developments to a much wider group of people.

The “Research Handbook on the History of Copyright Law” evaluates “the field of copyright history as it stands today”, and reviews contemporary and potential developments. The contributions cover copyright and history experts from across the UK, Australia, the United States, France, Spain and Italy, and it covers European, US and international copyright history from 16th Century to the early 20th century.

In short, Edward Elgar Publications give us a broad survey here of copyright and gives us a solid foundation for future legal research in what is such an important area of business and art.

Academics researching copyright law, authorship, art, and the book and music trades we know will find this title an invaluable resource for their work. It will also be of use to practitioners and the judiciary with an interest in the doctrinal history of copyright law which is so well set out here and another example of the excellent publications produced for lawyers from Elgar for their research handbooks in intellectual property series of legal works.

The publication date is 2016.

'This Research Handbook is a great overview for readers new to the subject of copyright history.' --Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice'`Anyone remotely involved or interested in how the law of copyright has developed in our new IT age will find this book a magnificent journey through special parts of our common law history. . . Academics researching copyright law, authorship, art, and the book and music trades we know will find this title an invaluable resource for their work. It will also be of use to practitioners and the judiciary with an interest in the doctrinal history of copyright law which is so well set out here and another example of the excellent publications produced for lawyers from Elgar for their research handbooks in intellectual property series of legal works.'
--The Barrister Magazine