Re: Author's Rights

From: DAVID POST <postd[_at_]erols.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 08:57:35 -0400 (EDT)

At 01:32 AM 4/11/96 -0400, Maurice Robinson wrote: [snip]

>

> True incident: One ancient monk (apparently named Feist *;-), complained
> in a marginal colophon about how much "sweat of the brow" he put into
> copying a manuscript of the Gospels, but at the end he thanked God for
> being permitted to help transmit the sacred document to others without
> hope of remuneration. Had that monk not been celibate, I suppose some of
> his descendants today might be complaining over the lost revenue rightly
> due to them on the basis of that 12th century monk's work.....

Actually, I was, just today, talking to a student who's writing a paper about sources of copyright protection in Judaic law, and he told me that there were *huge* battles in the 16th century about reprint rights to the Mishnah, and that the various rabbinical rulings that ultimately resolved these disputes formed the basis for some of the thinking behind the Statute of Anne -- can't vouch for the complete accuracy of this tale, but interesting nonetheless.

David

---

David G. Post *
Georgetown University Law Center*

Postd[_at_]erols.com OR              *
david.post[_at_]counsel.com		*
*********************************

Received on Tue Apr 16 1996 - 12:56:21 GMT