Authors on the other side

Copyright is said to be granted when its subject matter is fixed in a medium. Such a requirement is established in many jurisdictions to facilitate proprietary stability so that the right can emerge automatically. As a legal operation, this often serves to link authors with texts, attempting to fix its otherwise elusive matter and provide evidence in case of a dispute. But what happens if the medium claims to be the author? What is in question when the medium brings a lawsuit to be declared the owner of the outputs generated? This essay explores these questions by revisiting a legal controversy that took place a century ago between a medium and a sitter over the copyright in automatic writings. The legal case was remarkable because of the unusual claim, the parties’ belief in spiritualism and the hidden economy elicited by the law. This essay focuses on the ways the law tried to disavow spiritualistic claims at the expense of emphasising their materialisation through commercial means.