The Copyright Wars: Three Centuries of Trans-Atlantic Battle

Today's copyright wars can seem unprecedented. Sparked by the digital revolution that has made copyright―and its violation―a part of everyday life, fights over intellectual property have pitted creators, Hollywood, and governments against consumers, pirates, Silicon Valley, and open-access advocates. But while the digital generation can be forgiven for thinking the dispute between, for example, the publishing industry and Google is completely new, the copyright wars stretch back three centuries―and their history is essential to understanding today's battles. The Copyright Wars―the first significant trans-Atlantic history of copyright from its origins to today―tells this important story.

Peter Baldwin explains why fundamental tension has always driven copyright wars. Should copyright assure authors and rights holders lasting claims, much like conventional property rights, as in Continental Europe? Or should copyright be primarily concerned with giving consumers affordable and easy access to a shared culture, as in Britain and America? The Copyright Wars describes how the Continental approach triumphed, dramatically increasing the claims of rights holders. The book also tells the widely forgotten story of how America went from being a leading copyright opponent and pirate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to becoming the world's intellectual property policeman in the late twentieth. As it became a net cultural exporter and its content industries saw its advantage in the Continental ideology of strong authors' rights, the United States reversed its position on copyright, weakening its commitment to the ideal of universal enlightenment. This history reveals that today's open-access advocates are heirs of a venerable American tradition.