| Sumario: | The eighteenth-century moral philosopher Immanuel Kant advanced the idea that human freedom included a right not to have others circulate one's intellectual work; Kant called this practice a “counterfeit” of books and argued that no one but the author should be able to decide when a work was ready to be published.(FN1) Issues relating to unauthorized disclosure of unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and other works have bedeviled copyright law since its inception. A noteworthy mid-nineteenth-century U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit featured a dispute about ownership of the right to publish former President George Washington's personal correspondence.(FN2) In that case it was held that authors and, at times, recipients could determine whether to have such letters published, but the only third party that might enjoy such a right was the government. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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