Der Schutz literarischer Urheberschaft im Rom der klassischen Antike

Ancient Rome had no copyright law to protect literary works. Katharina Schickert does however show that these works were not completely unprotected. The ancient Romans created a system of social conventions which were so effective in protecting works from plagiarism and corruption that no law was required to supplement them. Since they believed that an author received his inspiration from the gods, they also thought that it was the author's right to decide upon how his work was to be presented to the public. After the presentation, the work was in the public domain and from this point on the readers and writers of that time did not oppose independent reproductions of literary works. Since making money was considered to be an unworthy goal for an author, these reproductions served the author's true purpose, which was to achieve immortality in the memory of his nation and of future nations.