What do book pirates steal? Unlike buccaneers who plunder treasure from travelers, press-pirates seize reprinting rights from other publishers. In sixteenth-century England, pirates operated even though London’s Worshipful Company of Stationers closely guarded booksellers’ privileges to print, known as ‘copies.’ Raids on the English book trade escalated until 1709, when a royal statute rescued writers and publishers by arguing that ‘copyright’ accrued always from a work to its author. The 1709 Copyright Act was a landmark in literary history and international property law, although it never entirely stopped piracy, especially across regional and national boundaries. The problem resurfaces today: as global media companies amass rights formerly held by authors, and book pirate bots trawl the digital seas.
Co-Curated by UIUC Professor of English Lori Newcomb and RBML Curator of Rare Books Adam Doskey, the Fall exhibition in RBML explores the colorful lives of certain nefarious booksellers, the various means of identifying piracies, and the lasting impact of piracy on literary authorship and intellectual property law. Exhibited items include examples of pirated works, books printed with false publisher information, and even a manuscript composed by a real, high-seas pirate that was itself pirated.
Newcomb and Doskey will present their exhibition at the October 7, 2015 at the 3:00 p.m. meeting of the No. 44 Society, the local land-lubbing, yet honorable club of book collectors. All are welcome! The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is located at 346 Main Library (MC-522), 1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801.
hanks to Dennis Sears of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library for this information item.
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