As Elton Fukumoto argues, the concept and ideology of the “author” developed in England during the 18th century as a product of John Locke’s notions about individualism, English Romanticism, and emerging copyright laws. Of those copyright laws, the most prominent is the Statute of Anne of 1710 (the first copyright law), which at the time utilized the notion of “authorship” (with the consequent Romantic associations of an original, irreplaceable creator of particular artistic and literary texts, and the Lockean individualistic notions of his/her inherent right to the products of his or her own labour) to protect the interests of booksellers. However, what are the consequences of post-structuralism and the critique of the homogenous, unitary “author”, and specifically within the context of this article, the consequences of Jacques Derrida’s critique of copyright, on copyright laws? Although Derrida’s arguments against copyright have been (mainly briefly) discussed before, this article will make Derrida’s arguments on copyright its explicit focus, with a concluding reflection on the consequences of Derrida’s arguments on copyright laws.
