Copyright Protectionism and Its Discontents: The Case of James Joyce's "Ulysses" in America

Abstract

This Note traces the history of the American copyright in James Joyce’s Ulysses and argues that the required formalities under the 1909 Copyright Act (in particular, the manufacturing clause) and the novel's status as an immoral or obscene work combined to destroy Joyce’s chance of securing such a copyright within months of the book’s initial publication in France in 1922. The choice of Ulysses to illustrate a problem that confronted many foreign-based writers has several advantages. First, as a consequence of its early notoriety and subsequent fame, Ulysses has attained a nearly iconic status in modern culture that gives its less familiar identity as intellectual property an intrinsic interest. Second, the case of Ulysses provides unusually detailed insight into the protectionist features of U.S. copyright law in the years before the advent of more cosmopolitan legislation regarding literary property. Finally, the failure of American copyright law to protect Ulysses at the outset engendered a complicated history that has rendered the work’s present copyright status an enigma and a source of controversy. Since it is often claimed that Ulysses is protected by copyright in the United States, and since these claims have a chilling effect on the activities of present-day publishers, scholars, and readers, a clarification of the copyright status of Ulysses in America is badly needed.

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