UK Copyright and Creative Economy Centre University of Glasgow (CREATe)
Doi
Abstract
This working paper presents an edited transcript of a copyright history webinar held on 15
December 2021, marking 15 years since the conception of the Primary Sources on Copyright
(1450-1900) 1 digital archive. Giles Bergel (University of Oxford) and Ian Gadd (Bath Spa University)
introduce Stationers’ Register Online (SRO)2 – a new resource that digitises the entries for
the literary, musical and artistic works made in the Registers of the Stationers’ Company of
London3 between 1557 and 1640. Jane Ginsburg (Columbia Law School) presents a new section
on Vatican sources which she (and her team of Latinists) contributed to the Primary Sources
digital archive, edited by Lionel Bently (University of Cambridge) and Martin Kretschmer
(CREATe, University of Glasgow). The project presentations were followed by a panel discussion,
joined by Elena Cooper (CREATe, University of Glasgow) and Neil Netanel (University of California
at Los Angeles), two of the national editors of Primary Sources on Copyright. This working paper
offers a reference point of wider interest. What should be the ambitions of a primary sources
project? Can the history of copyright law be re-written? What is the role of history for policy
