Copyright law is commonly described as carrying out a balancing act between the interests of authors or owners and those of the public. While much academic work, both historical and contemporary, has been done on the authorship side of the equation, this book examines the notion of public interest, and the way that concepts of public interest and the rhetoric surrounding it have been involved in shaping the law of literary copyright. Historical examinations of copyright have focused on the 18th century, but this book's main concern is with the period after 1774 in Britain. The 19th century...