ABSTRACT
Voices calling for the amelioration of the livelihood of creators and copyright protection had been sporadically raised before the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (i.e. the first Yugoslavia) in 1918. 1 Since the late nineteenth century, intellectuals had been critical of the poor material conditions and adverse professional relations facing the creative strata. Though demands for a copyright law were already being made in the first decade of the twentieth century and were regularly reiterated in public manifestos promulgated by writers and their professional organizations, the first copyright law was passed only in 1929. Paradoxically, the enactment of copyright legislation did not significantly transform Yugoslavia’s economy of culture. Though the demand for copyright protection had been raised from within the ranks of the fledgling cultural and intellectual professions, the materiali- zation of the law was ultimately the outcome of international developments within the context of the post-WWI diplomatic settlement. In other words, the law was activated and harnessed more by forces from outside the country than by local actors and/or domestic professionalization processes.
