Primary Sources on Copyright

PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Stationers Charter (1684) - Read more

Privilege of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Würzburg (1479) - Read more

Rabbinic Reprinting Ban for Eliyahu Bakhur, Rome (1518) - Read more

Petition from and Privilege granted to Antonio Tempesta for a map of Rome (1593) - Read more

Documents concerning the Models and Busts Act, London (1799) - Read more

Oscar Wilde photograph, New York (1882) - Read more

Bleistein: Cartoon, Chicago (1903) - Read more

Johannes of Speyer's Printing Monopoly, Venice (1469) - Read more

Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain, Madrid (1898) - Read more

French Literary and Artistic Property Act, Paris (1793) - Read more

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Wheaton v. Peters, Washington D.C. (1834)

Source: The University of Texas Tarlton Law Library Stack 215: Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. 591 (1834).

Citation:
Wheaton v. Peters, Washington D.C. (1834), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: us_1834

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_us_1834

Full title:
Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. 591 (1834)

Full title original language:
N/A

Abstract:
The first copyright decision of the U.S. Supreme Court and a landmark case in the field. While the case is best known for its rejection of common law copyright in the United States, its significance is also attributable to other factors. The commentary briefly discusses five significant aspects of the litigation and of the Supreme Court's decision. First, the case established the principle that there existed no post-publication common law copyright in the United States, and that post-publication protection could only be attained within the statutory framework. Second, the case reopened the theoretical debate over literary property more than fifty years after it was officially settled in Britain. The parties' arguments, the Justices' opinions and the public debate surrounding the case contained competing constructions of copyright as a limited state-granted entitlement or as a pre-political natural property right. While rehearsing the British literary property debate, the American version took place in a somewhat different ideological, economic and political context and thus produced new variants of the conceptual structure underlying copyright thought. Third, the factual background of the case--revolving around a dispute between two reporters of the Supreme Court over a condensed version of the Court's reports--involved the question of the propriety and extent of copyright protection in official state-related materials such as laws and case-law reports. The discussion surrounding the case laid the foundations for future law and thought about this topic. Fourth the dispute and the actions of the parties illuminates the changing status and character of the Supreme Court reporter during the early nineteenth century. Finally, the litigation exposed an intriguing and complex array of personal relationships between the various protagonists involved, including judges, litigants and lawyers.

Commentary: No commentaries for this record.

Bibliography:

McGill, Meredith L. 'The Matter of the Text: Commerce, Print Culture, and the Authority of the State in American Copyright Law.' 9 American Literary History 1, (1997).
____. ''A Curious Chapter in the History of Judicature': Wheaton v. Peters and the Rest of the Story (of Copyright in the New Republic).' 42 Hous. L. Rev. 325 (2005).
Joyce, Craig. 'The Story of Wheaton v. Peters, in Intellectual Property Stories.' In Jane C. Ginsburg and Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss eds. New York: Foundation Press, 2006.
Abrams Howard B. 'The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: Exploding the Myth of Common Law Copyright.' 29 Wayne L. Rev. 1119 (1983).