PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Linguet's memorandum, London (1777)

Source: Bibliothèque universitaire de Poitiers (SCD): Linguet, Simon-Nicolas-Henri, Annales politiques, civiles, et littéraires du XVIIIe siècle, tome III, Londres, 1777, p. 24.

Citation:
Linguet's memorandum, London (1777), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: f_1777b

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_f_1777b

Full title:
Linguet's opinion on the Ruling of 30 August 1777 regarding privileges

Full title original language:
Opinion de Linguet touchant l'arrêt sur les privilèges

Abstract:
Linguet, a famous lawyer, using arguments already presented in a previous memorandum in favour of the author's perpetual property, was one of the most convincing opponents of the last piece of legislation concerning the book trade to be passed under the ancien régime. The 1770s had indeed been a period of increasing tensions between Parisian and provincial booksellers since Diderot's 'Letter', forcing, as in England, lawyers of both sides to be more and more precise and persuasive in their arguments on the true nature of literary property. In fact, the various attempts during this period at carrying out liberal reforms of the corporatist organization - in particular under Turgot, the political mentor of Condorcet - may have been read by the Parisian guild as significant threats. The latter became real for the Parisian booksellers with the passing of the 1777 provisions on the duration of privileges, which provoked, as in England after Donaldson v. Becket (uk_1774), alarmist protests from the members of the guild. Linguet, using previous developments, attacked in particular the ambiguity of the definition of a privilege given by the king, and the inconsistency of such a definition with the recognition of the author's property. Like Louis d'Héricourt and Diderot before him, he also emphasized again the personal nature of the property recognized by these new provisions, and inferred from it an absolute contractual freedom for the author.

1 Commentary:
commentary_f_1777b

Bibliography:
N/A

Related documents in this database:
N/A

Author: Simon Nicolas Henri Linguet (1736-1794)

Publisher: N/A

Year: 1777

Location: London

Language: French

Source: Bibliothèque universitaire de Poitiers (SCD): Linguet, Simon-Nicolas-Henri, Annales politiques, civiles, et littéraires du XVIIIe siècle, tome III, Londres, 1777, p. 24.

Persons referred to:
Alembert, Jean le Rond D'
Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas
Boisrobert, François le Métel de
Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne
Bourdaloue, Louis
Chapelain, Jean
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Corneille, Pierre
Diderot, Denis
Hamilton, Anthony
La Fontaine, Jean de
La Motte, Antoine Houdar de
Linguet, Simon Nicolas Henri
Marmontel, Jean François
Massillon, Jean Baptiste
Ovid
Pradon, Jacques
Racine, Jean
Socrates
Vanrobais, Josse
Virgil

Places referred to:
Bordeaux
England
Holland
Lyon
Paris
Reims
Rouen
Saint-Émilion
Switzerland
Tarbes
Toulouse

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
N/A

Legislation:
Decree of the King's Council on the duration of privileges (1777)

Keywords:
Enlightenment, the
author/publisher relations
authors' remuneration
authorship, legal concept of
authorship, theory of
book trade
compilation
contract
counterfeit
defamation
duration
duration, prolongation of privileges
editions, new
free trade
guilds
imitation, learning by
immoral works
industrial revolution
interest groups
inventions
labour theory
learning, the advancement of
lobbying
monopoly
originality
patents, for invention
patronage
perpetual protection
personality theory
piracy
price regulation
privileges, French
property analogies
property theory
property theory, authors' property
property theory, publishers' property
public domain
public good
public performance
reputation
transferability
utility

Responsible editor: Frédéric Rideau


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