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C H ~ ~ T E R


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Copyright and the Invention of A~thorship

by Oswald Boole



I have argued that, because of the cOntradictions and ~ signs described here, there are certain structural pressures the way tha t a liberal society deals with information. When we t to the area of law conventionally recognized as dealing with in mation--intellectual property law, and in this case copyright law I claim that we will find a pattern, a conceptual strategy which tempts to resolve the tensions and contradictions in the liberal vi of information On one level, understanding this pattern will help to make sense (if not coherence) of the otherwise apparentlY cha~



world of copyright . On another level claim that the concept strategy developed in
copyright is important to understand


p rts of ~t can also Thus the combination of the romantic vision of author :~ distinction between idea and expression appeared to p ship arid the~] ceptual basis and a moral justification for intellectua1 n property, to dQ so in a way which did no t threaten to spread dangerous r~oti entitlement to other kinds of workers, and to mediak



the . °~.i between the

schizo

phreniC halves of the liberal world new Sr °~: -wonder that it was a Stlccess~ Small wonder that, as I hope to sho~ - -in this book, the language of romantic, original authorship tends k, reappear in discussion of subjects far removed from the ones had in mind. Like insider trading. Or spleens. A final question remains. The distinctions drawn from the idea of romantic authorship might appear to be surplus--unnecessary rem nants of a conceptualist age.

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FBI notice: Unau thorized reproduction is a violation of federal intellectual property laws and may be

intelligences could be understood as the -ul The language of the Declaration of Indepen fflnate act of at, men are created equal, that they are e d dense is insi~: ~ certain inalienable rights In the most siluplist~ C; _ ine the "author" of the transgenic species c Sense, ~ve ca.r~ * ~_ saying, 'If it weren't for me, they WOuldn't b he a~`icial inter

and I gave them no such

author is that they fix on qualities
rights." e here. I anz t~`eir ~
F

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Private Censors,
Transgenic Slavery,
and Electronic
Indenture
L ess obvious, but no less
important, than the
distributional and
effic~ency consequenceS
of an author -centered
regime are the ef fects that
this regime can have on
politics, morality, and the
market place of ideas.
property ~ssues-- authorial dystopia to counter the romantic economic, political, and cultural images of the author wh~ch currently exercise such a strange

Of mater al--the Spanish sexual identity, and Spender~s autobiography seems to have been particularly fas

to Leavitt, because it is less explicit than today's books in ~ng these issues. "There were things suggested but not artic - ulated that I found fascinating. For instance, choosing between a het - erosexual and a homosexual relationship, as well as what happens when

property ~ssues--
authorial dystopia to
counter the romantic
economic, political, and
cultural images of the
author wh~ch currently
exercise such a strange 
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