s hampered by artificial obstacles, the author
is not the full owner of his material; a portion of its value has been
taken away from him. In so far as international copyrights have not
been established, this is the position of the author of to-day.

Copyright is defined by Drone in his "Law of Copyright," as "the
exclusive right of the owner to multiply and to dispose of copies of
an intellectual production." It is also used as a synonym for
literary property. Regarding literary property, Drone says:

"There can be no property in a production of the mind unless it
is expressed in a definite form of words. But the property is not
in the words alone; it is in the intellectual creation, which
language is merely a means of expressing and communicating."

Copyright may therefore be said to be the legal recognition of
brain-work as property.

It is akin in its nature to patent-right, which is also but the legal
recognition of the existence of property in an idea, or a group of
ideas, or the form of expression of an idea.

International _patent_-rights have been recognized and carried into
effect much more generally than have copyrights. The patentee of an
improved toothpick would be able to secure to-day a wider recognition
of his right as a creator than is accorded to the author of "Uncle
Tom's Cabin" or of "Adam Bede."

"The existence of literary property," says Drone, "is traced back by
record to 1558, when an entry of copies appears in the register of the
Company of Stationers of London." Between 1558 and 1710 there was no
legislation creating this property or confining ownership, nor any
abridging its perpetuity or restricting its enjoyment. It was
understood, therefore, to owe its existence to common law, and this
conclusion, arrived at by the weightiest authorities, remained
practically unquestioned until 1774. During this earlier period there
were some instances of the recognition of literary property, but the
earliest reported case concerning such property occurred in 1666, in
which the House of Lords unanimously agreed that "a copyright was a
thing acknowledged at common law." A licensing act, passed in
Parliament in 1674, and expiring in 1679, prohibited, under pain of
forfeiture, the printing of any work without the consent of the owner.
But the first act attempting to fully define and protect copyright in
Great Britain was that of 1710, known as the 8th of Anne. It was
entitled "An Act