Moyse, Pierre-Emmanuel --- "Colonial Copyright Redux: 1709 v 1832" [2010] ELECD 506; in Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul (eds), "Global Copyright" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Global Copyright

Editor(s): Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848447660

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Colonial Copyright Redux: 1709 v 1832

Author(s): Moyse, Pierre-Emmanuel

Number of pages: 23

Extract:

11. Colonial copyright redux:
1709 v. 1832
Pierre-Emmanuel Moyse*

1 INTRODUCTION

This contribution is an essay on legal transplants in an historical and
colonial context. Using the Statute of Anne1 as a reference point, we will
sketch the evolution of Canadian copyright law on its journey to self-
determination during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This exposé
cannot possibly render justice to the extremely rich and somewhat under-
exploited subject matter of colonial copyright.2 Rather, as an impression-
ist would do, we will endeavor to project general impressions of Canadian
law during the colonial period by exploring several Canadian firsts. As
far as copyright law is concerned, the colonial period ended with the UK



* Assistant professor, McGill University, 2009.
1 An Act for the Encouragement of Learning by Vesting the Copies of
Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of Such Copies, During the Times
therein Mentioned, 8 Anne c. 19 (1710) (UK). Many scholars, a fair number of
whom are ALAI members, have contributed to the historical study of Copyright:
M. Rose (1994), `The Author as Proprietor: Donaldson v. Beckett and the
Genealogy of Modern Authorship', in B. Sherman and A. Strowel, Of Authors
and Origins, Oxford: Clarendon Press, at p. 32; L. R. Patterson (1968), Copyright
in an Historical Perspective, Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, at p. 12; J.
Seignette (1994), Challenges to The Creator Doctrine, Boston: Kluwer; J. Feather
(1988), A History of British Publishing, London; New York: Croom Helm; A.
Birrell (1971), Seven Lectures on ...