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29 N.Y.U. J. Int'l L. & Pol. 255 (1996-1997)
Poets, Pirates, and the Creation of American Literature

handle is hein.journals/nyuilp29 and id is 263 raw text is: POETS, PIRATES, AND THE CREATION OF AMERICAN LITERATURE THOMAS BENDER* & DAVID SAMPLiNER* Today the United States is the center of innovation in var- ious forms of intellectual property, and as such the U.S. gov- ernment has sought to enforce international standards that protect prior claims to intellectual property and thus combat piracy. Yet the United States has not always held this position in relation to the rest of the world. In the nineteenth century, it was a post-colonial nation, its cultural life derivative and its economy underdeveloped. In that circumstance, the United States declined to participate in international copyright agree- ments. Only by the end of the nineteenth century, after the United States had joined the ranks of the world's major indus- trial powers, did the government adopt legislation protecting the intellectual property of non-U.S. citizens.' The first century of copyright law in the United States provides a striking illustration of how an outlaw nation built its cultural industries and developed many of its cultural treasures while largely disregarding the intellectual property rights of foreign writers. The story of our country's evolving policies concerning intellectual property encourages us to be cautious; we must take care not to confuse a dominant interest with a universal principle. The history of the development of our national culture, and our literary culture in particular, sug- gests that the legal framework for dealing with intellectual property may well be as much a function of the stage of na- tional development as a response to international law. The study of the first century of copyright law in the United States also raises questions about the relation of com- mercial considerations to the nourishment of national cultural traditions. From its inception, U. S. copyright law was entan- gled in this question of the relationship between commerce and culture. Indeed, the first American copyright legislation * Thomas Bender is Professor of History at New York University. ** Ph.D. Candidate, History, New York University. 1. For the best general account, see AuBERTJ. CLAM. THE Mo\.tMENT FOR INTERNAMTIONAL COpYRIGHT IN NrNE'EENhm-CENTURY AMERICA (1960). 255 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics

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