Abstract
[...]the roth" and "vice"-Samuel Roth and the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice-are closely connected in one passage, while the other transforms "copyright" into "copriright" and "America" to "Ourania," implying that the true obscenity is American copyright law. By making "ingenious use of trade courtesy" among publishers of works in the public domain, Spoo maintains, Joyce placed "the author at the center as the celebrity owner of potent though undefined moral entitlements and as the cynosure of the literary economy, commanding allegiance from booksellers, advertisers, the press, and even the reading audience. The dust jacket for Without Copyrights identifies Spoo as the Chapman Distinguished Chair at the University of Tulsa College of Law but does not mention his impressive credentials as a literary scholar: for instance that before he began his career in law he was an English professor (also at Tulsa), editor of the James Joyce Quarterly, and author of many literary studies, including James Joyce and the Language of History (Oxford University Press, 1994).