...s? Even the ones they claim to have been dictated by gods or aliens? Even if American copyright law requires “an author,” presumably a human one? 9 Ca... ...r the films of the Second World War, or footage on the daily lives of African-Americans during segregation, or the music of the Great Depression, or th... ...hey were successful. 36 As Yochai Benkler puts it, Alice Randall, an African American woman, was ordered by a government official not to publish her cr... ...nt of the romantic theory of authorship in the context of contemporary Anglo-American copyright law. But when one looks at the his- tory of the French... ... in restraint of trade” or the Supreme Court decisions that dispossessed the American Indians on the theory that they did not comprehend the concept o... ...s mean we must presume it was fair use and require the mu- sic companies and songwriters to show clear evidence of “market harm” if they want to convi... ...tory on it, setting the practice in historical context. In the 18th century, songwriters responded to current events by writing new lyrics to existing... ...of the vocal styles of artists such as Clara Ward and Julius Cheeks. Secular songwriters often appropriated gospel songs, such as the Pilgrim T ravele...