"The Sole Right... Shall Return to the Authors": Anglo-American Authors' Reversion Rights from the Statute of Ann to Contemporary U.S. Copyright
![handle is hein.journals/berktech25 and id is 1483 raw text is: THE SOLE RIGHT... SHALL RETURN TO THE
AUTHORS1: ANGLO-AMERICAN AUTHORS'
REVERSION RIGHTS FROM THE STATUTE OF ANNE
TO CONTEMPORARY U.S. COPYRIGHT
Lionel Bentyt &Jane C Ginsburgt
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 1477
II. THE REVERSION RIGHT IN BRITAIN FROM 1710 TO
1814....................... ................ 1480
A. STATUTE OF ANNE: ORIGINS OF SECTION 11 ....................... 1480
1. The Purpose of the Contingent Reversion ............. ..... 1482
2. Wy a Reversion Right Rather than Regulation ofAuthor-
Publisher Contracts? .......................... ..... 1487
B. IMPACT OF SECTION 11 ON AUTHORS AND BOOKSELLERS........... 1491
1. Contractual Practice After 1710............. ........ 1494
a) Formalities ....................................... 1500
b) Interest Transferred ............... ............... 1502
c) Duration of Transfer............... .................... 1504
d) Exclusion of Statute ................ ............. 1505
e) Explicit Reference to the Reversionary Term............. 1506
f) Other Aspects of Contracts ................ ..... 1508
2. How Was the Reversion Understood?....................... 1514
a) 1710-1765: A Plurality of Interpretations................... 1515
t Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of Cambridge;
Professorial Fellow, Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Special thanks to Yin Ham Lee,
University of Cambridge, LLM Class of 2009-2010, for her excellent research assistance,
which was funded by the Herchel Smith Intellectual Property Research Fund at Emmanuel
College, Cambridge; and to Tomis G6mez-Arostegui for his help in relation to obtaining
inforimation relating to various eighteenth-century legal proceedings. Professor Bently is the
author of Part 11 of this study.
--t Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law, Columbia
University School of Law. Thanks to Mark Musico, Columbia Law School, Class of 2011, for
his excellent research assistance. Thanks also for comments and suggestions to Prof. Jessica
Litman and to the members of the Columbia Law School faculty workshop. Professor
Ginsburg is the author of Part III of this study.
1. Act for the Encouragement of Learning (Statute of Anne), 8 Ann., c. 19, § 11
(1710) (Gr. Brit.) [hereinafter Statute of Anne].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/berktech25&div=49&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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