ABSTRACT
Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet. Whenever a copyright law is to be made or altered, then the idiots assemble.
-Mark Twain, Mark Twain’s Notebook, May 23, 1903
Copyright is a relatively recent concept in international law. Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre has actually become more famous than the work of Henry Pelham which Revere pirated and re-published with impunity in March, 1770. Book piracy also flour ished in 18th century America as publishers re-printed pirated editions of British books for American readers. Yet, nobody complained, as the sharing and communication of ideas seemed more important than the ownership of those ideas. Consider the vast quantity of material pub lished by those prolific writers “Anon” and “Anonymous.”
