Property in Print: Copyright Law and the American Magazine Industry

• In Event: 263 - Regular Session. Cultural Studies 3: Cultural Fields and Markets: Formation and Transformation

Abstract

We study one dimension of property-rights law, copyright law, and its relationship with cultural conceptions of authorship and technical constraints on the economics of publishing. We assess the impact of these forces on markets for literary work. Because copyright law was first developed from the early eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, we focus on that time period. And because magazines, not books, were the primary forum for literary expression during this time, we study the magazine industry. We find that both technical and cultural factors created opportunities for magazines and imposed constraints on them, but most effects of copyright law were mediated by cultural, rather than technical, factors. Lack of copyright protection for foreign authors allowed magazines to appeal to broad audiences by reprinting foreign authors’ work. Very few magazines claimed copyright over the original material they published, and those claims that were voiced were not tested by the courts. Therefore, magazines operated mostly “in the shadow of the law,” freely reprinting work from domestic sources, including other magazines. Nevertheless, the development of copyright law spurred the emergence of a cultural conception of author-as-paid-professional; in turn, this cultural shift altered the nature of the market for literature, as magazines began to pay authors for their work and compete intensely over the most popular authors.

Authors

• Heather A. Haveman, University of California-Berkeley

• Daniel N. Kluttz, University of California-Berkeley