Skip to main content

The Outer Limits. . . .of Copyright. Part 1

By

Bloomsday (June 16th) has passed, but I would assume that among James Joyce scholars and devotees the celebrating continues. Bloomsday is the annual celebration of the day-in-the life of Leopold Bloom immortalized in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. Lovers of James Joyce are still celebrating because Ulysses and the other work published during Joyce’s life have been free from copyright protection since January 1, 2012. Still celebrating six months later? After what they had to deal with regarding the estate of James Joyce they may be celebrating this liberation for many years to come. Allow me to explain.

James Joyce died in 1941. Joyce’s estate, which controlled the copyrights to his published works traded hands until it ended up in the control of his grandson Stephen James Joyce (he like using his full name).  Works protected by copyright cannot be reprinted unless permission is granted by the copyright holder, and permissions are often granted, for a fee. When the persons requesting use are academics the fee involved is often nominal. Not with Stephen James Joyce at the helm of the Joyce estate. Stephen made the academic’s job of writing about James Joyce hell. Gordon Bowker referred to it as “Literature’s most tyrannical estate” in a piece appearing on the Daily Beast web site. In an attempt to prevent publication and protect the personal life of his grandfather, Stephen has sued, or threatened to sue numerous scholars, performers (including singer Kate Bush), and even the National Library of Ireland. The scholarly books that did not get published would fill library shelves. Publishers, writers, and all sorts of artists were scared off by lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits. The Joyce Studies Annual ceased publication due to Stephen James Joyce. Professor Robert Spoo of the University of Tulsa Law School quit editing the James Joyce Quarterly and went to law school to become, yes, a copyright lawyer. 

With the published works of James Joyce moving into the public domain Stephen James Joyce no longer wields the power he once had. However, there are still questions that swirl around James Joyce’s unpublished works and manuscripts. Stephen James Joyce’s vigorous and aggressive defense of his grandfather’s works is understandable; Lawrence Lessig has said that “Stephen Joyce is using whatever power he has.” (It is worth noting that Lessig and Joyce tangled in litigation. See Schloss v. Sweeney, 515 F. Supp. 2d 1083 (N.D. Cal. 2007)). 

The effects of our copyright system often manifest themselves in the most unlikely places. The matter of James Joyce’s literary estate is a good example of this. 

We now return you to your normally scheduled programming.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Amazing, but True, Deportation Story of Carlos Marcello

By
Earlier this week, the University of Houston Law Center was fortunate to have as its guest Professor Daniel Kanstroom of Boston College of Law. An expert in immigration law, he is the Director of the International Human Rights Program, and he both founded and directs the Boston College Immigration and Asylum Clinic. Speaking as the guest of the Houston Journal of International Law’s annual Fall Lecture Series, Professor Kanstroom discussed issues raised in his new book, Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora . Professor Michael Olivas introduced Professor Kanstroom to the audience, and mentioned the fascinating tale of Carlos Marcello, which Professor Kanstroom wrote about in his chapter “The Long, Complex, and Futile Deportation Saga of Carlos Marcello,” in Immigration Stories , a collection of narratives about leading immigration law cases. My interest piqued, I read and was amazed by Kanstroom’s description of one of the most interesting figures in American le...
1 comment
Read more

This Day in Legal History -- Roy Cohn

By
Big lawyers have big personalities, and few had as big a personality as Roy Cohn who was born on this day in New York City in 1927. Cohn’s career was spent in the Washington DC—New York axis, famous in the press for his legal and social exploits, his list of famous and infamous clients, and as the poster-boy for every stereotype of the dishonest grasping lawyer. The legal career of Roy Cohn is an object lesson on the use, and abuse, of the lawyer’s power. Roy Cohn was born on February 20, 1927 in New York City. His father was a justice in the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court and was well connected politically. These connections, along with a precocious intelligence which allowed him to graduate from Columbia law school at age 20, paved the way for a bright legal career. Cohn’s first job (after waiting until he turned 21 to be admitted to the bar) was as an assistant U.S. Attorney in New York. He first came to prominence in his role as a prosecutor in the Rosenberg espi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Resources for New Law Students

By Anonymous
This Monday, August 24, is the first day of classes for the Fall 2015 semester at the University of Houston Law Center.  Many of the arriving students will be 1L or foreign LLM students, each of whom will receive their first introductions to an academic system that in some ways is notably different from anything in their educational background.  For anyone interested, the O'Quinn Law Library collection contains a number of resources designed specifically to help these new law students find their footing.  The following books are held on reserve: Nygren,  Starting off Right in Law School Miller, Law School Confidential Edwards, LL.M. Roadmap Noyes & Noyes, Acing Your First Year of Law School And the following books are in the library stacks available to be checked out: Gallacher, Coming to Law School Stropus & Taylor, Bridging the Gap Between College and Law School Gader-Shafran, The International Student...
Post a Comment
Read more