From
Bookworks [MWABA, IOBA], Beloit, WI, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since November 23, 1999
First edition (second state, Pottle 50) of this important legal decision, affecting copyright law in the United Kingdom and later the United States; breaking publishers' and large bookshops' perpetual copyright monopoly. Has "shops" on the title page, various alterations in the text. Laid in is a bound photocopy of the relevant pages from Pottle, describing the editions and states, comments on the case and its publication. Issued unbound, ours has been recently bound in black leather over grey cloth boards with red leather spine labels - not decorative, but neat & servicable. The edges of the title page and last leaf have been reinforced; there is light chipping and a tear or two to other page edges, and minor pencil marginal brackets. [1], blank, iv, 37, blank pages. Size: 7¾" by 9¾". Seller Inventory # r0943
Title: The Decision of the Court of Session upon ...
Publisher: James Boswell; Printed by James Donaldson, for Alexander Donaldson, Edinburgh
Publication Date: 1774
Binding: Hard Cover
Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Edition: First Edition.
Seller: Brick Row Book Shop, ABAA, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
4to, modern blue paper wrappers, 37 pages. An important literary copyright dispute between booksellers in England and Scotland, known as Hinton v. Donaldson, in which James Boswell and John MacLaurin represented the Edinburgh publisher Alexander Donaldson and his cohorts against claims by London publishers that he was violating their copyrights. Donaldson specialized in publishing inexpensive reprints of English books which he maintained were not protected by the Copyright Act of 1710. The London publishers argued that their copyright existed in perpetuity and that their works were being reprinted illegally. They won an initial ruling in the London Court of Chancery in 1769, and proceeded to the Scottish Court of Session to continue their case, where Boswell and MacLaurin argued for Donaldson. The Scottish Court, comprised of 15 judges, agreed 11 to one with the defendants, and their interestingly disparate opinions on copyright protection and law were compiled by Boswell and published to help Donaldsonís case as it was appealed in London. Contemporary annotation on one page; manuscript number "2" in the upper margin of the title-page; early ink ownership stamp of John Hope / Advocate on the title-page, which is probably John Hope (1794-1858), advocate and later judge in the court of session. See the ODNB. Title-page skillfully repaired at the gutter; very good copy, enclosed in a chemise and quarter morocco slipcase. Pottle 50 and see pages 98-101; Rothschild 450; ESTC T88998; NCBEL II, 1212 First edition with "Shops" in the imprint, second issue with the catchword "Lord" on page iv; "comparatively" on page 34; etc. Seller Inventory # 28332
Quantity: 1 available