An Old Law for a New Literature: Authors, Publishers and the Early Years of the Victorian Copyright Act 1869.
This article analyses the early years of the operation of copyright legislation in the colony of Victoria, Australia. The Copyright Act 1869 (Vic) was introduced into a thriving but volatile colonial literary marketplace. The law was based almost wholly on the UK law at the time, existing in a very...
| Publicado en: | Law, Culture & the Humanities Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 386 - 406 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications Inc.
Jun2023
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=164283833&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 164283833 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 17438721 ABD jtl: Law, Culture & the Humanities issn: 17438721 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2023 vid: 19 iid: 2 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. artinfo: ui: 164283833 10.1177/1743872119885795 ppf: 386 ppct: 20 formats: tig: atl: An Old Law for a New Literature: Authors, Publishers and the Early Years of the Victorian Copyright Act 1869. aug: au: Ailwood, Sarah Sainsbury, Maree affil: University of Canberra, Australia su: Legal literature Author-publisher relations Australian authors Publishing Copyright Social innovation Victoria sug: subj: Victoria Legal literature Author-publisher relations Australian authors Publishing Copyright Social innovation keyword: Australia author book history colony copyright publisher ab: This article analyses the early years of the operation of copyright legislation in the colony of Victoria, Australia. The Copyright Act 1869 (Vic) was introduced into a thriving but volatile colonial literary marketplace. The law was based almost wholly on the UK law at the time, existing in a very different environment. This article notes that despite the rhetoric of the protection of the right of authors as an aim of the law, the effect was something quite different. We examine the use of copyright by some key players in that colonial market, both publishers and authors. That analysis reveals that the prophetic words of George Higinbotham, that the law was not for the protection of the author, but the publisher, can be demonstrated to be true. This is evident both in the implementation of the law itself and in a number of inconsistencies in its operation. We conclude that, despite public and parliamentary rhetoric drawing on the romantic conception of the author as creator, the law's conception of the author as proprietor offered little protection to local Australian authors writing new literature for a new country. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|