The History and Philosophy of Copyright

This chapter is structured around the key evolutionary phases of the modern copyright paradigm: (1) the proto-copyright of crown privileges and letter patents, responding to the invention of the printing press since the late 1400s; (2) the 18th century Battle of the Booksellers, eventually asserting copyright as a limited incentive in the production and dissemination of cultural products; (3) the parallel development of author norm towards the end of the 18th century, associated primarily with the philosophers of German Idealism; (4) the 19th century statutory construction of abstract works to which all acts of exploitations refer, fusing the property concept of utilitarian incentives with restrictions derived from the author concept (eventually culminating in the Berne Convention)