. . .

Conclusion

In the end, what did Joseph Smith accomplish on June 11, 1829, when the title of the Book of Mormon was deposited with the clerk of the United States District Court? He took the first step, and perhaps what then could be argued was the only meaningfully mandatory step, toward securing a postpublication copyright in the Book of Mormon in the United States, making his copyright legally enforceable in federal court. What did the Prophet accomplish in the Abner Cole incident? He enforced through arbitration his author’s common-law, prepublication right in his copy. And what did Joseph Smith accomplish by conveying to the emissaries the revealed command that they go to Kingston? He commissioned them to go, as author’s agents, to sell a right to his copy in Canada as part of an effort to obtain funds necessary to pay the printer in Palmyra. This was also a necessary step in complying with the Lord’s injunction that the Prophet’s copyright be secured in all the world generally and be secured in the four Canadian provinces specifically by seeking to find a willing publisher in Canada who would purchase the right so that piracy would be thwarted, the integrity of the text could be preserved, and the word of God could be promulgated in that land. The effort was consistent with legal principles in the United States and Canada. And no doubt it reinforced in the minds of the early brethren the importance and value of the copyright held by the Prophet.