Who Owns the Word? Copyright and Disempowerment

In the book that you hold in your hands, right below this text you will find the expressive sign ©. Rights to the original text belong to the authors. Rights to the Russian-language text belong to the translator. Rights to the book in its physical or electronic form belong to the publisher. Today, large corporations hold exclusive rights to works of art they had no part in creating. An image of your face may not belong to you, but to the photographer who took it. And 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 available to the public only in the late 19th century?
Literary scholar David Bellos and lawyer Alexander Montague joined forces to find out how the idea of copyright emerged and why the right to intellectual property needed protection. In their engaging and ironic narrative, there is room for debates among ancient thinkers, old English laws, Western pop music, and the machinations of lobbyists.
«For centuries, a fierce struggle has been waged for a more equitable distribution of land. The goals of revolutions have proclaimed the redistribution of natural resources and means of production. Parties and politicians have 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).