In Autumn term 2021, we were delighted to host a series of online public events about legal history. In two public lectures, Anjali Vats and Kathy Bowrey explored ‘Intellectual Property and its History’. This was followed, in December 2021, by a CREATe Digital Resources event in which Ian Gadd and Giles Bergel launched Stationers’ Register Online (which digitises the register of the Stationers’ Company of London 1557-1640) and Jane Ginsburg introduced her new section on Vatican sources, part of the well-known copyright history resource Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), www.copyrighthistory.org, ed. L. Bently and M. Kretschmer.
Following on these events, we are very pleased now to publish new resources on copyright history:
first, further documents in the Vatican section of Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), www.copyrighthistory.org, by Jane Ginsburg (which are available online); and
secondly, two new CREATe Working Papers, which relate to the above events (which can be freely downloaded using the links below).
‘Primary Sources on Copyright Revisited: A Copyright History Webinar on Papal Privileges and the Stationers’ Register’ (CREATe Working Paper 2022/8) is a transcript of the proceedings of the December CREATe Digital Resources event, including contributions from Lionel Bently, Giles Bergel, Elena Cooper, Ian Gadd, Jane Ginsburg, Martin Kretschmer and Neil Netanel.
‘Copyright History as a Critical Lens’ by Elena Cooper (CREATe Working Paper 2022/7), originally published as an Opinion in the European Intellectual Property Review, Vol. 43(3), 2022, draws on the discussions at the Autumn 2021 Public Lectures and other recent developments in the field of copyright history, exploring how history can be a lens for critically thinking about copyright and reflecting on its future.
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Opinion: Copyright History as a Critical Lens
Elena Cooper
Abstract
This article, a follow-up to an Opinion published by the E.I.P.R. in 2016 (‘Interrogating Copyright History’ by E. Cooper and R. Deazley), surveys recent developments in copyright history scholarship and argues that, as well as a form of scholarly enquiry in its own right, history can be a powerful lens for critically thinking about copyright and looking to the future.
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Primary Sources on Copyright revisited: a copyright history webinar on Papal Privileges and the Stationers’ Register
Lionel Bently, Giles Bergel, Elena Cooper, Ian Gadd, Jane Ginsburg, Martin Kretschmer and Neil Netanel
Abstract
This working paper presents an edited transcript of a copyright history webinar held on 15 December 2021, marking 15 years since the conception of the Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) digital archive. Giles Bergel (University of Oxford) and Ian Gadd (Bath Spa University) introduce Stationers’ Register Online (SRO) – a new resource that digitises the entries for the literary, musical and artistic works made in the Registers of the Stationers’ Company of London between 1557 and 1640. Jane Ginsburg (Columbia Law School) presents a new section on Vatican sources which she (and her team of Latinists) contributed to the Primary Sources digital archive, edited by Lionel Bently (University of Cambridge) and Martin Kretschmer (CREATe, University of Glasgow). The project presentations were followed by a panel discussion, joined by Elena Cooper (CREATe, University of Glasgow) and Neil Netanel (University of California at Los Angeles), two of the national editors of Primary Sources on Copyright. This working paper offers a reference point of wider interest. What should be the ambitions of a primary sources project? Can the history of copyright law be re-written? What is the role of history for policy?
