tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505562.post5616466861415196647..comments2024-03-15T11:42:21.265-04:00Comments on The Patry Copyright Blog: The 1878 UK Royal Commission ReportWilliam Patryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12987498082479617363noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12505562.post-4579331330200601062007-11-27T01:18:00.000-05:002007-11-27T01:18:00.000-05:00Three comments:1) Although nowhere near as extensi...Three comments:<BR/><BR/>1) Although nowhere near as extensive as the Royal Commission, readers interested in political discussions of copyright in the 1870s United States might take a look at the 1873 Joint Report on the Committee on the Library. In this document, usually referred to as the Morrill Report, Congress took a rather startlingly utilitarian view towards copyright. <I>Harper's New Monthly</I> reprinted what I take to be the report, available (beginning) <A HREF="http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fharp%2Fharp0046%2F&tif=00916.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABK4014-0046-131" REL="nofollow"> here</A>.<BR/><BR/><BR/>2) Although it may not have made it into the 1878 Royal Commission Report, there actually was something of a copyright abolition movement in the UK. See, for example, Robert Allen Macfie's books <I>Copyrights and Patents for Invention: Pleas and Plans for Cheaper Books and Greater Industrial Freedom, with due Regard to International Relations, the Claims of Talent, the Demands of Trade, and the Wants of the People</I> (2 Vols., 1879, 1883).<BR/><BR/>3) For an extended (and occasionally amusing) discussion of how copyright was perceived in the 19th century U.S. -- and not just in Congress -- see my <I>Pimps and Ferrets: Copyright and Culture in the United States, 1831-1891</I>, available <A HREF="http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc_num=bgsu1193529137" REL="nofollow">here</A>. <BR/><BR/>-Eric AndersonThe Inspector's Minionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01083999155030365948noreply@blogger.com