This book reveals the impact of copyright law on transatlantic modernism in the United States. Key aspects of modernism-James Joyce's reputation in America, Ezra Pound's proposals for copyright reform, Samuel Roth's activities as a pirate-pornographer-are reexamined in the light of the U.S. law and the voracious public domain it created. Spoo commands a comprehensive understanding of both copyright law and the delicate structure of informal courtesies-- not laws--that for decades governed the publication of books written overseas yet read and often printed in the United States.