"The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen a number of pressing developments in copyright law, including an increase in the number of types of work accorded copyright protection, the introduction of the concept of the 'original work' into national copyright acts, and the possibility to define the object of copyright as an intangible entity. This book presents an interdisciplinary study of the history of copyright law and the development of the object of protection. Taking British, French, and Danish copyright law as key examples, the book examines the legal history and status of copyright law. Part 1 of the book explores early copyright law, including the technological understanding of a printed 'copy', and early metaphysical debates on the nature of intangible property. In Part 2, The book moves on to discuss the introduction of the elastic concept of the 'work' as the object of protection and its distinction to 'copy' as its 'mere' material instantiation. Part 3 finally examines the particular emergent problems in relation to the inclusion of design as protectable by copyright. In its examination of terminological cross-fertilization between the diverse legal traditions and the impact of philosophical discourse on legal language, this interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to scholars and students of intellectual property law, literary studies, and cultural theory"--