The Nineteenth Century: Intellectual Property Rights and "Literary Larceny"

In his preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802), William Wordsworth claimed that the “poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time.” This notion of the Romantic author as a transformational genius played a foundational role in the development of modern copyright, which defined the author as an individual who deserved special recognition and protection under the law. The Copyright Act of 1814 held that copyright rested with the author for twenty-eight years or the author’s lifetime, whichever was longer, and over the course of the century these rights were further extended and refined. Thomas Talfourd took up the cause for reform in 1837, putting forward a bill that was designed “to insure to authors of the highest and most enduring merit a larger share in the fruits of their own industry and genius.”