Davis on Noah Webster: America's First Copyright Lobbyist

David D. Davis, Copyright Clearance Center; Graham School, University of Chicago, is publishing Noah Webster, America’s First Copyright Lobbyist in the New England Journal of History. Here is the abstract.

In The Federalist #43, James Madison observed, regarding the patent and copyright clause in the U.S. Constitution, that in it "the public good fully coincides … with the claims of individuals." Noah Webster, creator of “An American Dictionary of the English Language” and the 'Blue-Backed speller’, was an early and important advocate of copyright in the young Republic. He was also a lobbyist in his own interest, i.e. for-profit commercial publishing. In his efforts to bring about copyright reform, he exemplified Madison's dictum, of the coincidence of public and private interest, and so provides us with an early example of how intellectual property laws come to be crafted, and revised, a process which continues to the present day.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.