Who owns the word? Copyright and powerlessness

In the book you hold in your hands, right below this text, you will find the expressive sign ©. The rights to the original text belong to the authors. The rights to the Russian-language text belong to the translator. The rights to the book in its physical or electronic form belong to the publisher. Today, large corporations hold exclusive rights to works of art to which they had no relation. An image of your face may belong not to you, but to the photographer who took it. Right now, writers and artists are fighting for rights to the content created by artificial intelligence trained on their works. Why was Virgil accused of plagiarism? Who sued Taylor Swift? How are "Les Misérables" and The Beatles related? And why did Pushkin's works become public only at the end of the 19th century?
Literary scholar David Bellos and lawyer Alexander Montague joined forces to figure out how the idea of copyright arose and why the right to intellectual property needed protection. In their engaging and ironic narrative, there is room for disputes among ancient thinkers, old English laws, western pop music, and the machinations of lobbyists.
"For centuries, there has been a fierce struggle for a fairer distribution of land. The purpose of revolutions was proclaimed as the redistribution of natural resources and means of production. Parties and politicians called for fairer access to housing, education, and healthcare. But no one has ever considered the struggle for a more equal distribution of copyright" (David Bellos, Alexander Montague).