The "Extraordinary Multiplicity" of Intellectual Property Laws in the British Colonies in the Nineteenth Century
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Lionel Bently
Although a great deal of attention has been paid to the history of intellectual property in Great Britain, very little has been said about the history of intellectual property law in the British colonies. This Article attempts an overview, focusing on the nineteenth century. The author argues that there was no apparent imperial strategy as to the development of colonial intellectual property laws, and that, as a consequence wide variations existed between the laws operative in Britain and the colonies. One exception to this picture existed in relation to literary copyright, where, for reasons that were never clearly articulated, British law had been extended to its colonies from 1814. The overall picture was otherwise one of "legal fecundity," with capacity for variation and experiment by the colonial legislatures constrained more by internalized notions of what was appropriate than by formal, external, limitations imposed from Britain. However, towards the end of the nineteenth century, there appeared a growing desire both in Great Britain, and amongst many of the colonies and self-governing dominions, for a greater level of uniformity.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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- Introduction
- Copyright and Truth
- Copyrights as Incentives: Did We Just Imagine That?
- Copyright as Tort
- What Is a Copyright Work?
- Copyright and Social Movements in Late Nineteenth-Century America
- The "Extraordinary Multiplicity" of Intellectual Property Laws in the British Colonies in the Nineteenth Century
- Hebrew Authors and English Copyright Law in Mandate Palestine
- Is Copyright Property? -- The Debate in Jewish Law
- Bollywood/Hollywood
- Tailoring Copyright to Social Production
- Global Intellectual Property Governance (Under Construction)
- An Old-Fashioned View of the Nature of Law
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Introduction
- Copyright and Truth
- Copyrights as Incentives: Did We Just Imagine That?
- Copyright as Tort
- What Is a Copyright Work?
- Copyright and Social Movements in Late Nineteenth-Century America
- The "Extraordinary Multiplicity" of Intellectual Property Laws in the British Colonies in the Nineteenth Century
- Hebrew Authors and English Copyright Law in Mandate Palestine
- Is Copyright Property? -- The Debate in Jewish Law
- Bollywood/Hollywood
- Tailoring Copyright to Social Production
- Global Intellectual Property Governance (Under Construction)
- An Old-Fashioned View of the Nature of Law
