Rose, Mark, "The Question of Literary Property"

Thèmes abordés

Literary property; copyright

Résumé du document

In the 18th century, Mark Rose questioned the relationship between origination and ownership of a literary
work. He presented the genesis of the legal existence of proprietorship in literature: copyright; and
by doing so, he endeavoured to define the constitution of a literary work.

"The Question of Literary Property", in Authors and
Owners. The Invention of Copyright, Harvard, 1993, pp.1-8

Extraits

[...] Who were the proprietors of the works published prior to 1710 and which contents were used by other authors? Besides the existence of copyright resulted in the creation of “fair which allowed the use of copyrighted material and questioned the originality of a work concerning literary work. By 2010, any expressible form of intellectual creation fixed in a medium is concerned by copyright - which is internationally institutionalized. The author holds the copyright over his work until his death. In Britain, an author's literary work enters the public domain 70 years after his death: “copyright will last for 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies”[4]. [...]

[...] 18th century Autobiography: Rose, Mark, Question of Literary Property”, in Authors and Owners. The Invention of Copyright, Harvard pp.1-8 Mark Rose questioned the relationship between origination and ownership of a literary work. He presented the genesis of the legal existence of proprietorship in literature: copyright; and by doing so, he endeavoured to define the constitution of a literary work. Previous to the 18th century, intellectual property was legally inexistent. Its legal existence originated in 1710 with the Statute of Anne in Great Britain and stemmed from the creation of copyright. [...]

[...] The question of literary property echoed the rise of Liberalism. This ideological trend, mainly conceptualized by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke in Great Britain, stressed that society was to be based on a social contract implying the rule of law and on the individual and natural rights of life, liberty and property[3]. From the emergent Liberal point of view promoted by philosophers and thus authors, the creations of the mind were to be private properties owned by individuals. So, the ownership of their intellectual work in the form of publications was the strict application of the ideas they promoted and their literary works published after 1710 especially works about property and labour- represented the material mise en abîme of these ideas. [...]