Challenging Paternity: Histories of Copyright

Abstract

Intellectual Property law has long been characterized by formalistic legal and economic analyses suited for practitioners of law and classical economics. It has more recently garnered the attention of scholars looking to investigate the social elements and contexts from which IP emerges and functions. Context, authority, and power have all been unveiled by critical interrogations of commonplace elements of IP, such as the ‘author.’ This review considers three recent books: Mark Rose’s Authors and Owners, Martha Woodmansee’s The Author, Art, and the Market: Rereading the History of Aesthetics, and David Saunders’ Authorship and Copyright. The first two engage the complex cultural context of copyright law’s historical emergency, highlighting the interconnectedness between various discourses in national contexts. The third is a less nuanced of the history of copyright and author’s rights in five jurisdictions.

Keywords: Intellectual property, Copyright, Law and humanities