Beschreibung:

BURROW, James]. The Question Concerning Literary Property determined by the Court of King's Bench on 20th April 1769 in the Cause between Andrew Millar and Robert Taylor with the Separate Opinions of the Four Judges . London: B. Tovey, 1773.
BURROW, James]. The Question Concerning Literary Property determined by the Court of King's Bench on 20th April 1769 in the Cause between Andrew Millar and Robert Taylor with the Separate Opinions of the Four Judges . London: B. Tovey, 1773. 4° (261 x 228 mm). (Some toning to title.) 20th-century brown cloth. THE FOUNDATION CASE FOR MODERN COPYRIGHT LAW FIRST EDITION . The origins of Millar (1769) lay in the decision of the Scottish bookseller Alexander Donaldson to open a shop in London. At issue was the broader threat that Scottish reprints posed to the London book trade. When Donaldson published Some Thoughts on the State of Literary Property in 1764 , he included the following advertisement: "This is to give notice, that Alex. Donaldson, from Edinburgh has now opened a shop for cheap books, two doors east from Norfolk-street, in the Strand, where they are sold from thirty to fifty per cent. under the usual London prices." (R. Deazley (2008) 'Commentary on Millar v. Taylor (1769)', in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org.). This was the first case to take action to clarify certain points of the Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709, the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties. RARE : only three copies have appeared on the market in at least the last thirty-five years.