Nearly three years ago, we mentioned a dissertation by Eric Anderson, called "Pimps and Ferrets: Copyright and Culture in the United States," which looked at copyright in the US from 1831 to 1891 -- a little-studied period of time when it comes to copyright issues. There's plenty of coverage of everything from about 1900 onwards, starting with the debate around the 1909 Act. There's also a fair bit of research about the founding fathers initial intent with copyright. But not much attention has been paid to that in-between time.

Anyway, Alan Wexellat points us to the news that Anderson has now redone the paper as a book, and has released Pimps and Ferrets: Copyright and Culture in the United States under a Creative Commons license. He's using a non-commercial license, which we just discussed has some problems, but it really is a tremendously worthwhile read. It basically shows that, as we see today, many people don't really understand the purpose and intent behind copyright -- and that includes some of the folks in charge of making the law. That allowed some special interests to co-opt the process and expand copyright to their own benefit. Sound familiar? Well, history seems to repeat itself...