I'm grateful to the <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/19/consumer_focus_spart/" target="_blank">ever-watchful Andrew Orlowski of the Register</a> for spotting that authors' rights get a very powerful mention in the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml" target="_blank">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a>, the United Nations document, agreed in 1948, which, to quote Wikipedia, '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights" target="_blank">represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled</a>'.

Article 27 (2) says...
<blockquote>Everyone has the right to protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.</blockquote>
I hope that quote comes in useful next time a book thief tells you that you're the bad guy in all this for having the temerity to think it's wrong to have someone steal your work. Can't help but wonder too how the 'all copyright is theft' movement manages to square its clear breach of the UN Declaration with their professed position as libertarian activists intent on bringing 'freedom of thought' to the masses. By nicking stuff naturally...

Orlowski's story carries a neat little in-joke in the url -- the word 'Spart'. For the younger among you this is a reference to the legendary Dave Spart, a humourless left-wing activist character created for <em>Private Eye. </em>Spart spouts trendy drivel while representing such bodies as the 'National Amalgamated Union of Sixth-Form Operatives and Allied Trades', usually in Neasden.

You can <a href="http://www.private-eye.co.uk/eyeplayer.php?media=128" target="_blank">hear Spart on the latest round of demos in London here</a>. I can't wait for him to address the subject of book theft, though I suspect he'll have nothing to say that we haven't heard before from the usual sources.