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A Celebration of Catherine's life took place at Newnham College on Saturday 18th June, 2016. Lionel Bently's address can be found here: Address by Lionel Bently.

Words of appreciation from the world of intellectual property law and copyright history
for Catherine Seville (1963-2016)

catherine_seville.jpg"I was a JRF at Newham. I lived in the room at the bottom of the stairs which led to Catherine’s office; we were neighbours for three years. Her students idolized her: they knew she took no prisoners when it came to academic rigour, and they also knew she was there for them no matter what: it was writ large on their faces as they walked in and out of her office. She made me truly understand the nature of collegiate life. Her relentless energy as a teacher, tutor, scholar and administrator of our sodalitas was infectious: she was wonderful and graceful company. Many a cup of tea and conversation by her fireplace; many a grin across governing body tables, many shared enthusiasms for literature, and white burgundies (we were few, I stood by her). This is the first week of term; as I am marking my first set of translations and essays, remembering Catherine cheers me up–it always does. " (Raphaële Garrod, Associate professor in early modern French, Magdalen College, Oxford)

"I first met Catherine Seville 2008 when I came to Cambridge to pursue my LLM studies. She was my Director of Studies at Newnham College, as well as one of my lecturers in the Faculty's IP courses. I admired her rigorous writing style and enjoyed her typically British sense of humour. Newnham College has lost one of its most engaged fellows, and the IP community an elegant and thoughtful voice." (Dr Eleonora Rosati, Faculty of Law, University of Southampton)

"Catherine was a joint supervisor of my PhD thesis at Cambridge. I benefited enormously from her wide ranging knowledge of copyright matters. As a supervisor, she was unfailingly courteous, sensitive to detail, patient and generous with her time. Her excellent hospitality and warm personality meant that supervision meetings were conducted in a truly friendly but intellectually rigorous environment. Catherine was deeply committed to her students' welfare. Her pastoral guidance in times of personal difficulty was rooted in an ingrained sense of responsibility for others. Her advice was both practical and effective. After the PhD, Catherine remained a constant source of help. She assisted with references, motivated me to keep writing and commented on draft articles. I will always treasure Catherine's supervision, humanity and assistance." (Dr Patrick Masiyakurima, University of Aberdeen)

"Catherine was a truly supportive and caring supervisor and an inspiring teacher and academic. Her passion about transmitting her knowledge and her accessibility to her students distinguished her. Cambridge University and the academic community will be that much poorer without her." (Patricia Vantsiouri, former doctoral student, University of Cambridge)

"Reading Catherine’s book on the 1842 Copyright Act as a law student was one of my inspirations for pursuing research on the history of copyright, and I will always be grateful for the many things I learned from her. I know she will be deeply missed by a large international community of scholars as well as by her friends and family." (Dr Barbara Lauriat, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College, London)

"I am very saddened by Catherine Seville's passing. She was a truly inspirational scholar. There was something very special about the way she helped early career academics. Catherine was extremely generous with her time and knowledge and I remember how she helped me with my work a few years ago, not only reading it closely but always suggesting ways of improving it. She really cheered me up in my first attempts to become an academic, minimising the failures and highlighting the positives. She was extremely generous even to those who were not her (Cambridge) students. I will always be grateful to her. My thoughts are with her family." (Dr Jose Bellido, University of Kent)

"I'm really feeling very difficult at this moment – I still can't believe Catherine left this world. As I am browsing her works, every word bounces into my eyes so lively. I remember talking to Catherine when I tried to invite her to our workshop on media law in September 2013. She smiled at me regretfully and complained that her problem was that her schedule was so full ... Everything was just like yesterday. She has shown her love for the most scintillating parts of the world that God has created for us: music, literature, law... If I may use an old Chinese saying to describe such a respectable and talented person like Catherine passing away so early: even "the Heaven is envious of such a person of outstanding abilities" (天妒英才).

"Catherine will live always in our memory." (Dr. Ge Chen, Research Associate, Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), Berlin)

"Catherine was always a very friendly and supportive colleague and I enjoyed working with her at CIPIL. I always admired and respected her dedication to her students and I'm sure she will be much missed by them and everyone who knew her." (Gaenor Moore, CRASSH, formerly CIPIL Administrator)

"Catherine Seville was a kind and generous colleague and friend, and I valued her dry wit and gentle support. She was also a gifted scholar, who brought intellectual rigour and high standards to everything she undertook. The Cambridge and legal communities have suffered a great loss. I will miss her greatly." (Dr Isabella Alexander, University of Technology, Sydney)

"I met Catherine through CIPIL and was impressed with her unflinching dedication to her College and work. She was passionate about the past but her outlook was focused on the future. I remember her fortitude, dignity, kindness and intellect and how she always found the time to read and praise the work of other CIPIL members. My sympathy goes out to her family." (Dr Patricia Akester, Head of Intellectual Property Law Clinic at Sérvulo & Partners, CIPIL Associate and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Lisbon)

"Catherine was an outstanding scholar and an inspiration to many new-comers to the field, myself included. Cambridge will not be the same without her." (Dr Elena Cooper, CREATe, University of Glasgow)

"I am sad today. Catherine was among the nicest people I met. Je me souviens de sa gentillesse, de ses sourires, et de son regard bienveillant. Ces choses-là ne s'oublient pas." (Professor Pascal Kamina, Université de Franche-Comté)

"Catherine was known to many across the world as an incredibly meticulous and highly appreciated scholar. I had the privilege of knowing her as a person. She will be sorely missed." (Professor Oren Bracha, University of Texas)

"Catherine Seville was a scholar whose work sends forth a warm guiding light across copyright history. She also helped others see a clearer way forward, even helping progression line by line, when she saw the need. It just seems impossible that someone whose work is so extensive, thorough and solid could not be continuing on. Her loss to the IP community is a very great one." (Professor Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales)

"I join all who have known Catherine Seville personally in your tribute to a great academic and a sensitive scholar. I have known her mainly through her work, of which I admire the rigour and intelligence. She will be greatly missed." (Professor Maurizio Borghi, University of Bournemouth)

"I was deeply saddened to learn of Catherine's death: a great loss to the IP academic fraternity and, even more poignantly, to her colleagues in Cambridge law faculty." (Professor Norma Dawson, Queen's, Belfast)

"I met Catherine by proxy through her wonderful book about the early days of copyright - Victorian times. It is not often when reading an IP book that one says to oneself: "Here is a real scholar, one whose work will last." I did for that book - compelling."

"I met her at several CIPIL and other functions - the more you saw her in the better she was."

"We have lost a lovely person and one of the world's first class copyright minds." (The Rt. Hon. Professor Sir Robin Jacob, UCL)

"Dr. Catherine Seville was an outstanding scholar in the field of intellectual property. Her works on the genesis of copyright law were magisterial for not only analysing legal developments, but also contextualising the evolution within social and political history. As I and my many students and colleagues have found, she made copyright history come alive with stories. She will be deeply missed." (Professor Uma Suthersanen, Queen Mary, Univ. of London)

"Catherine was young, vital, so smart and so nice. I admired her work and admired her. I am shocked and saddened." (Professor Mark Rose, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara)

"I first met Catherine in the mid 1980s over a shared interest in nineteenth-century copyright matters. From the first she was as generous with her time as she was in sharing and correcting early forays into copyright history. I recall in particular a memorable dinner at Magdalene where we exchanged notes hastily scribbled on menus. I still have mine because it serves as a reminder of what not to say about a particular Act. But Catherine's company was also infectious and when Steward of Newnham she invited me to several wonderful guest nights which lasted and lasted. I shall hugely miss her friendship and wise advice." (Professor James Raven, University of Essex)

"Catherine Seville was recognised as a leading scholar in intellectual property law, and in particular the history of copyright. I have cited her work in that field and have also appreciated her work in other areas. I particularly remember the conference organised by Justine Pila and Ansgar Ohly on the Europeanization of IP Law in January 2013, at which Catherine and I both spoke. Catherine's contribution was a characteristically lucid examination of the impact of fundamental rights on IP law in the area of P2P file sharing. Fortunately this has been preserved for posterity in the volume of papers subsequently published by OUP." (Mr Justice Richard Arnold, Chancery Division, High Court of England and Wales)

"My thoughts are with you." (Professor Charlotte Waelde, Faculty of Law, University of Exeter)

catherine_seville_poitiers_sm.jpg"The news of Catherine’s early death comes as a terrible shock. I knew her best through her remarkable and readable scholarship on the history of copyright, so wonderfully informed not only by painstaking research but also by a wide range of cultural and especially literary reference points. Her textbook on EU intellectual property law was also brilliantly conceived and superbly executed. My feeling of loss is only increased by the sense of what she still had to offer. She was also, quite simply, a very nice person. I only met and corresponded with her occasionally but always found these exchanges enjoyable and interesting. The most memorable encounter, however, was in May 2004, when we joined forces along with Bill Cornish and Lionel Bently to perform Thomas Talfourd’s celebrated tragedy, Ion, as part of a table ronde on copyright history in the University of Poitiers, hosted by Frederic Rideau. The performance was almost as sensational as the very first in 1836 even if our audience was somewhat smaller and probably much more bemused than the people who packed into the premiere in Covent Garden. It was primarily an occasion for laughter but there was a serious contribution in it too for the academic occasion – typical in all ways of Catherine as I knew her. The attached photo shows her with Lionel and our French hosts at Angles-sur-l’Anglin, near Poitiers, on the eve of our show (Bill Cornish had not yet arrived, for reasons which only he can explain). It was a wonderful occasion in all respects, including the flights with Ryanair and the alarmingly short runway at Poitiers, and I shall remember Catherine’s contribution to that with gratitude and deep regret that it cannot ever be again." (Professor Hector MacQueen, University of Edinburgh)

"I was introduced to Catherine by Bill Cornish, at a time I was working on my PhD dissertation, at the end of the 1990s. She has thus been linked to these special years of discovery in Cambridge and also, thanks to – or because of – her brilliant and insightful work, to a growing obsession for Thomas Talfourd ! With the now famous and jubilant re-interpretation of Ion in a small French town in 2004, recalled here by Hector MacQueen, the preparation of the table ronde which preceded this event was also the perfect occasion to benefit more directly from Catherine’s precious personal qualities, in particular her encouraging kindness and enduring patience. Needless to say that the act of reading her huge contribution to the history of copyright and to intellectual property, now with great sadness, will never be the same." (Dr Frédéric Rideau, Université de Poitiers)

"In 2008, as a PhD student, I first encountered the work of Dr Catherine Seville, and in devouring her two major historical books, Literary Copyright in Early Victorian England and The Internationalisation of Copyright Law, I found my own interest in historical intellectual property law. Dr Seville’s research interests were as diverse as her work was rich in detail, writing on every topic from Peter Pan, to Mark Twain, across the EU, UK, and the USA. I never had the opportunity to meet Dr Seville, but nearly a decade after discovering her work it continues to influence my own today, and I know will do so for many years to come." (Dr. Catherine Bond, University of New South Wales)

"I met Catherine Seville in 2012 when, as a music scholar, I started a project on performers’ rights. On telling Catherine about my project, she responded with reassuring enthusiasm and invited me to attend her copyright lectures, which formed the basis of my project. On every encounter thereafter, Catherine selflessly offered helpful insights and kind words of encouragement. I will always remember her with fondness." (Dr. Ananay Aguilar, Leverhulme Fellow, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge)

"Although I was familiar with Catherine's work, I hadn't actually met her until I came to stay at CIPIL. In the wonderful years I spent there she struck me as a quiet but strong presence, thoughtful and sharp, radiating kindness." (Mireille van Eechoud, IVIR University of Amsterdam)

"It is with great sadness that I learned of Catherine's passing. This is truly a great loss to the IP community and all who have known her. Catherine was an eminent scholar very much admired for her dedication and commitment. I would like to convey my deepest condolences and prayers to her family, friends, and all at Newnham College and CIPIL for this indescribable loss. Catherine will be dearly missed and may she rest in peace with the Lord.” (Professor Elizabeth Siew-Kuan Ng, National University of Singapore)

"From our first meeting, Catherine was always generous with her time and her knowledge. I greatly valued her insights during the time we all spent together in the 2014-15 LLM 'History of Intellectual Property' seminar. Her dedication was always apparent - a small but memorable example being her soldiering through one of our tiny two-student seminars despite a terrible cold. No doubt her loss will be keenly felt." (Daniel Kinsey, LLM Student, 2014-2015)

"Catherine seemed to me to find the right balance between enthusiasm and measured, well-informed scepticism. In my early years in Cambridge, she invited me to lunch in Newnham and was enormously helpful in discussing lecturing and supervising. We had enjoyable debates about our work, particularly in the European IP and Competition area, where I fondly remember us both commenting that the other's field ought to be able to do more to address the issues at hand, while pointing out the challenges faced by our own field in so doing. I certainly learned much from the time that I spent with Catherine, and will miss her laconic self-descriptions of her voice when lecturing while under the weather (Macy Gray was a favourite comparison)!" (Professor Angus Johnston, University of Oxford)

"I was very sad to hear of Catherine's passing. A genuinely good person, she was also a brilliant scholar. Her work on Victorian and international copyright stands as a model for others to aspire to. I learned much from her and she will be greatly missed." (Professor Tomas Gomez Arostegui, Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon)

"Catherine Seville has left us unexpectedly, and far too soon. Her scholarship offered sophisticated and stimulating investigations into the intersection of legal and cultural history, as well as thought-provoking reflections on legal history's contributions to analysis of the prospects for the future of copyright. She combined considerable historical erudition with an excellent grasp of current copyright doctrine. Her work was well-known beyond the borders of the UK and the EU. The Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA, on whose board she served, published her work, as did the tri-lingual (French, English, Spanish) Revue Internationale du Droit d'Auteur. Copyright scholars the world over have lost a widely-respected colleague." (Professor Jane Ginsburg, Columbia University)

"I am truly heartbroken to learn of Catherine Seville's death. I extend my sincere condolences to her family and friends, and to everyone Catherine has touched through her work. I met Catherine in 2014 when I was a student of the English Legal Methods Summer School at the Cambridge Faculty of Law. I told her that it was my dream to study Intellectual Property Law at Cambridge and that I wanted to apply to the LLM programme in the near future. She asked which college I was interested in and she highly recommended Newnham College to me as she was the Vice-Principal at the time. She subsequently offered to give me a personal tour of Newnham College and its beautiful gardens. During the tour, she not only made me fall in love with Newnham College but she also made a huge and lasting impact on me due to the inspiring and encouraging conversation that we had - while walking through the gardens, the beautiful Newnham College library, the Buttery and the incredibly long hallway of Newnham College. She told me about her early career, education and the time when she was applying to Cambridge. I told her about what I wanted to achieve, how she inspired me and that I aspired to have a career similar to her impressive career. She told me something that nobody had really ever told me before: "You can have all of it too". I will never forget those words. She truly and genuinely believed in me. I could tell that she was passionate about the education of women, Newnham College and Intellectual Property. I told her, after the tour was over, how cruel it was that I had to leave Newnham as I completely fell in love with the college and she told me that I now had something to look forward to. I was really looking forward to studying at Newnham College one day under the guidance of her as my Director of Studies. I will never experience her inspiring and thought-provoking Intellectual Property lectures and guidance now as I so hoped and planned to experience one day. She truly made a lifelong impact on me and she greatly and sincerely encouraged me to pursue my dreams. I am so fortunate that I had the opportunity to tell her how much she inspired me. It is a great honour and privilege to have known her and therefore I am truly lucky. It is not often that someone comes along, like Catherine, who you know will make a huge and lasting impact on you for the rest of your life. The Faculty of Law, CIPIL and Newnham College will not be the same without her. I will continue to pursue my dreams and, because of her, I hope to become a member of Newnham College one day too. Thank you so very much, Catherine." (Georgina Lara Booth)

"I was very sorry to hear the sad news of Catherine’s death. I did not know her well, but remember her warmth and hospitality when I was a visitor at Cambridge some years ago. For much longer, however, I had been very familiar with her scholarly work, which I greatly enjoyed for its lively and penetrating accounts of nineteenth century copyright history, and from which, like so many other contributors to this page, I benefitted enormously in my own work. I remember with particular pleasure Catherine’s elegant and witty presentation on Canada’s vexed relationship with the UK at the ten year celebration of CIPIL last year." (Professor Sam Ricketson, University of Melbourne)

"I first met Dr. Seville when she lectured the course on international intellectual property in the LLM programme at the University of Cambridge in the year 2011/12. Her sudden demise is simply shocking. Of a number fond memories that she left behind, I distinctly recall that she was the only lecturer to my knowledge, who came to the lecture hall with a bag of chocolates every single day, and she used to distribute it among us during the halfway break. She would speak to us during the break of where we come from, our cultures and such random things, which now seem to be the most treasurable conversations I've ever had. Her knowledge needs no emphasis, but I believe her simplicity, approachability and pleasing smile made her unique. It is with sadness but also with happiness that I state that academically I am where I am because of her guidance, and I should have, and could have, thanked her an infinite number of times for it." (Milhan Ikram Mohamed, Doctoral Student)

"Catherine and I corresponded frequently since mid-2014 when I approached her by email in an unsolicited way with an esoteric question about the 1842 Copyright Act. It is rare to engage with an intellectual so generous and scrupulous. Her death is a profound loss." (Dr David Brennan, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Vic.)

"Very sad to hear of Catherine's passing. I remember a wonderful lunch she kindly organised when Margaret Ann Wilkinson was over from Canada. Catherine combined being friendly, erudite and stylish in an inimitable way. A great loss to the IP community; sympathies to her family." (Professor Alison Firth, Surrey/Newcastle/ Queen Mary)

"There have been many words and expressions of grief from the great and the good, as it should be. I would like, as a member of the Law Faculty's admin staff, to add my own. I didn't know Catherine well, just a few words in passing as she came into or left the building, however I was struck by her friendliness and warmth toward someone she barely knew. It's true that we had a mutual friend and that is how I first had a conversation with Catherine, and subsequently she always took time to stop and chat. Mostly - if not always - about very little of importance but her wry humour was always apparent. I was saddened to learn of her passing and I believe that she will be sorely missed by friends and colleagues. And by those of us who also serve." (John Corr)

"I was in shock when I learnt about Catherine's passing. She had a deep impact in my Cambridge experience, and I can say for sure that my academic work would have been much poorer without her guidance. She was vigorous and passionate about her subject (copyright). I think I can close my eyes and still hear her speaking about Talfourd or Mark Twain. She also had a deep knowledge about literature - an interest that we shared. Being her student was very challenging - specially for someone whose native language was not English. But at the same time that she pushed for results, she showed me that I was brighter than I believed. She will be utterly missed." (Aline Ferreira de Carvalho Da Silva, LLM student, 2014-5)

"I first met Catherine during my LLM studies at Cambridge, and had the opportunity to know her much better when she became the joint supervisor of my PhD thesis. Catherine was always warm, wise and supportive, and I learned much from her both about scholarship and about life. The world seems a poorer and colder place for her absence." (Yin Harn Lee, University of Sheffield)

"Dr Seville was a truly inspiring lecturer. Her passion for her work was clearly apparent in her lectures and was one of the reasons why I always enjoyed her lectures. Her legacy remains in the lives of the many law students she has inspired and will not be forgotten." (Joyce Fong, LLM 2009/2010)

"Catherine's book on early Victorian copyright is never far from my desk, and I expect this is so for many of us. Catherine Seville was a scholars' scholar. Who will now say: 'it would be foolhardy (and unduly Whiggish)'?" (Professor Martin Kretschmer, Director, CREATe, University of Glasgow)

"Very sad to hear this. Catherine was my Director of Studies when I was at Darwin on the LLM. Have fond memories of going to a meeting with her in Newnham, which she conducted horizontally on her sofa. I was not to start talking until she had sprawled herself out first. She also played music and displayed clips from newspapers in her lectures. Someone who didn't take life too seriously (which is the right attitude to take to life)." (Mark Rodgers, Barrister at Law, Dublin)

"Catherine was my Director of Studies during my LLM studies at Newnham College, Cambridge in 2013/14. I admire her diligence, dedication to work, her listening ear and high sense of discipline. She was a great intellectual, a guiding light, a role-model, and a counsellor. She helped me find myself and follow my passion. I recall her saying "slow and steady wins the race" during one of our meetings in her office. Catherine had a profound impact on me. As a teacher today, I try to be the kind of teacher she was. She had so many qualities worthy of emulation. Having such a positive experience with Catherine at such a pivotal time was invaluable for me. Memories of her are indelible. May her soul rest in peace." (Adure Uzo-Peters, University of Ibadan, Nigeria)

"On my arrival in Cambridge in 1990 I joined in teaching Intellectual Property as an LL.M. subject. There, among a group of engagingly bright students, was Catherine Seville. Already immersed in literature and other fine arts, she had obtained her London University M.Mus from the Royal Academy of Music. She had then been admitted by Newnham as an Affiliated Student in order to read for the English Tripos Part II during the academic years 1985-7. Intent on finding a discipline that would furnish an academic career, she turned to law. In Cambridge’s generous view, her undergraduate achievements showed capacities that would justify registering her for an LLM. She had no difficulty in fulfilling that promise and saw in the law of copyright the branch of intellectual property that she most wanted to study in depth. I was appointed her research degree supervisor. Soon enough I realised that I had as much to learn from her as she from me. Her approach was historical and the training for this would be much enhanced by modern historians of Britain, notably at Newnham – the College where she built a multi-faceted core for her academic existence. She appreciated how the eighteenth century history of copyright had already been explored by modern scholars. She set out to continue that work through the decades after the House of Commons franchise began to be reformed in 1832.

By 1842 a general revision of the basic principles of copyright was on the statute book. Catherine completed her Ph.D. thesis with address and then revised it for publication by CUP (Literary Copyright Reform in Early Victorian England (1999)). In it she tracked two basic lines of development. The first brought out the role of politically influential individuals in the movements for and against change in the concept, scope and consequences of copyright. The second traced the involvement of individuals and groups in reforms affecting their own engagements in the book trade.

Following her first track she found a hero in the person of Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854). He was a barrister of non-conformist stock who took up a range of radical liberal causes. Only in his last six years did he become a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Before that he had been prominent as a social reformer of the law affecting the custody of children, and a political reformer of copyright. He was a journalist and MP for Reading; but his lasting reputation was as a playwright who wrote pieces rooted in Hellenic classicism. His first endeavour in this sphere was his tragedy, Ion, first publicly performed in 1836. It was a grim exposure of the effects of autocratic power upon Adrastus, king of Argos, whose people suffered under a Delphic prophesy that their plight would continue so long as any inheritor of the kingdom was a scion of his family. His own behaviour went unchecked by any decent restraint deriving from his own personality. In the drama Argos is rescued from its hellish condition by the young Ion, but only after it is revealed that he is the son of Adrastus who was lost at birth; therefore to undo the prophesy that damns Argos he must kill himself; and, after telling his beloved of his dilemma, that is what, on the final page, he proceeds to do. Immediately the clouds over the kingdom begin to lift. The play was a popular triumph in which the formidable William Macready assumed the title role for many performances. Its blank verse caught a public mood for political change, which did not recur to the same extent over Talfourd’s later efforts in the genre.

For my efforts as a supervisor Catherine presented me with a copy of Ion as well as a coloured print of Talfourd, now to be seen in the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law. In 2004 six of us were invited to visit academic counterparts in the University of Poitiers. I produced a radically reduced synthesis of the play’s text for us to read to them and this we did (despite my leaving my passport behind – see MacQueen above). Quite what the audience made of it went unaccounted. But we – including Catherine – seemed to enjoy emitting the necessary cris de coeur. And Talfourd’s struggle to secure a modernised version of British copyright law became a central theme in her first book.

Turning to the other main track of that book, Catherine tackled the role of a number of trades, which were extracting from lawmakers and enforcers the property rights that could lead to fortunes from successes with particular copyright works. She devoted much time to the careful reading of correspondence between individuals and even more to the outputs of groups of the leading publishers and printers who struggled to find common positions for the future copyright laws of Britain and its colonies. In Continental Europe civilian jurists wrote from philosophical foundations which justified the need for copyright as giving expression to authorial and artistic achievements of creators by their contributions to the advanced flowering of national cultures under industrial conditions. In common law jurisdictions however the general principles of copyright were largely developed by judicial interpretation of outline legislation and these precedents evolved when individual litigants wanted answers to questions affecting their commercial practice. Their concentration was on essentially economic rationales for what conduct by competitors could be stopped by grants of injunctions and damages in civil actions. As a leading playwright, Talfourd joined in argument over the period for which copyright should be granted. He wanted an extension of the right to the author’s life plus 60 years for most cases; but he went too far for ‘freedom of expression’ advocates of his day. Nonetheless those working for pragmatic solutions, led in the main by judges, took as their prime concern the business of underwriting the production and distribution of new material that as an incentive mostly needed copyright only for a relatively short period and for use against common forms of ‘borrowing’. For Catherine this settled the historical paths to follow in the period after mid-century when controversies became more focussed on solutions proposed at the level of national and international politics and diplomacy. They give real assurance to her second book, The Internationalisation of Copyright Law, with its tempting sub-title, Books, Buccaneers and the Black Flag in the Nineteenth Century (CUP, 2006).

As with other types of intellectual property, the governing morality of copyright turns very largely upon immediate demands of those engaged in its exploitation. Catherine’s demonstration of this reality in the development of British copyright allies it to a much more general phenomenon in the evolution of English common law. Professor Toby Milsom spent his splendid career, much of it in Cambridge, explicating how change within that system was so often a response to the arguments of litigants before courts in search of solutions to their own particular needs. Since I knew both of them well over long periods, it is gratifying to point out the similarity of their basic perceptions. The fact that they died within a few days of each other is pure coincidence. But it adds poignancy to Catherine’s death at an age when she was deep into research for her next unravelling of copyright history – which would have concentrated on copyright in theatrical performance. She had still so much to pursue and share." (Professor William R. Cornish, Emeritus Professor, University of Cambridge)