Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900)

www.copyrighthistory.org

Identifier: f_1791

Commentary on Le Chapelier's report

Frédéric Rideau

Faculty of Law, University of Poitiers, France

Please cite as:

Rideau, Frédéric. "Commentary on Le Chapelier's report (1791)." Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900). Edited by L. Bently and M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org.

1. Full title

2. Abstract

3. References

1. Full title

Report of Le Chapelier on Dramatic Author's property (with the Decree adopted by the National Assembly)

2. Abstract

Le Chapelier's report on Dramatic Author's property is often mentioned in the literary property historical debates for its famous assertion on the most sacred of all properties at last secured by revolutionary legislation ("La plus sacrée, la plus légitime, la plus inattaquable et, si je puis parler ainsi, la plus personnelle de toutes les propriétés, est l'ouvrage, fruit de la pensée d'un écrivain…"), in fact two years before Lakanal's preamble to the artistic and literary property law (July 1793). Whatever "personal" the nature of property may have been to its author, the new legislation was however more complicated to interpret than it seemed, as duration, before the "public property" had to start, remained thoroughly limited in time.

3. References

full commentary in preparation