Copying, Stealing and Medieval Writings

It is undisputed that the Internet has radically changed the idea of copy-protection, given the relative ease with which one can make prefect digital copies of a copyrightable piece of work. But who would have thought that the Middle Ages suffered from the same problem – theft of their intellectual property.

In a wonderful blog post, Got Medieval highlights how safeguarding intellectual property was a concern even in medieval times and provides illustrations of their efforts to protect their work. I had previously written about anti-piracy slogans that formed part of the first few frames of a legally purchased DVD that went something like this:

“You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a mobile phone. You wouldn’t steal a DVD. Downloading pirated films is stealing. Stealing Is Against The Law… Piracy: It’s a crime.”

The blogpost seems to highlight a similar effort on the part of medieval authors to dissuade others from stealing their work with ‘curses’, of all things. Looking at the slogans that Hollywood production companies use to prevent piracy, it appears that they are not altogether dissimilar in spirit. Both, evidently strike at the moral fibre of an individual, highlighting the depravity of the act of stealing.

For instance, a 16th-century French missal belonging to a man named Robert has the following accompanying text:

“Should anyone by craft of any device whatever abstract this book from this place may his soul suffer, in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not recorded among the Blessed.“

Then there is this one:

“If anyone should steal it, let him know that on the Day of Judgment the most sainted martyr himself will be the accuser against him before the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

However, I disagree to some extent on the apparent similarity of the Hollywood and Medieval messages. While the Hollywood slogan uses the same technique – stressing on the depravity of the act of stealing – what is often lost in translation and ignored by a layman, is that the Hollywood slogan equates ‘copying’ (which I gather from their use of the word ‘downloading’) with ‘stealing’, while the medieval slogan is simply restricted to the act of ‘stealing’ itself.

The point of this post is to highlight a question that I have already raised before. Is ‘copying’ the same thing as ‘stealing’? I have elicited several responses from my use of the phrase ‘copyright infringement is not theft’ and I use this post to illustrate how, even in the Middle ages, stealing was regarded as an act, considerably distinct from copying. And here is why. I don’t see, in any of these curses, anything to suggest the depravity of the act of copying. The emphasis is on stealing and I fully understand the need to deter and instil fear in the minds of people attempting to dishonestly remove someone from the possession of a book, document or any other article containing an original piece of writing. But this is different from ‘copying’ itself.

To analogise using an example closer home, let me take the example of Valmiki’s Ramayana which has witnessed a series of regional renderings and recensions, indicating that the original text itself witnessed several revisions, which undoubtedly involved the act of ‘copying’. Similarly, in the case of the Vedas that were passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. Although I outrightly confess my ignorance of the mechanisms associated with such practise, I would venture to guess that ‘copying’, in this case an oral reproduction of the hymns, was in fact encouraged and it was merely the theft of a physical copy of a book, document etc. that was vehemently discouraged at the time.

My personal belief is that copyright law, if not purposefully interpreted, could really restrict access to knowledge. Of course, there are instances of copying that are just not acceptable, but we must move away from the practice of terming everything as ‘copying’, even though there may be a significant social benefit arising from such an act. This is precisely the reason fair use rights exist and their social and cultural importance must be highlighted today as well.