Includes bibliographical references (pages 413-512) and index.

Introduction : The agon of author and audience -- The battle between Anglo-American copyright and European authors' rights -- From royal privilege to literary property : a common start to copyright in the eighteenth century -- The ways part : copyright and authors' rights in the nineteenth century -- Continental drift : Europe moves from property to personality at the turn of the century -- The strange birth of moral rights in Fascist Europe -- The postwar apotheosis of authors' rights -- America turns European : the battle of the booksellers redux in the 1990s -- The rise of the digital public : the copyright wars continue in the new millennium -- Conclusion: Reclaiming the spirit of copyright.