Paradise Lost or Fantasy Island? Voluntary Payments by American Publishers to Authors Not Protected by Copyright

The payments to British authors by American publishers during the mid-19th century, when the works of British authors lacked American copyright protection, have been presented as evidence that copyright might have little benefit to authors. This paper reexamines the evidence that has been used to support this claim and then presents previously unexamined information about payments to British authors by leading American publishers of the period. The main finding is that payments to British authors were minimal or nonexistent prior to the establishment of a no-compete agreement among leading American publishers. Even after implementation of this agreement, many British authors were not paid, and those who were paid received considerably less than they would have received under copyright. Because antitrust disallows such agreements, this 19th-century natural experiment indicates that the removal of copyright in modern economies would likely eviscerate payments to authors.