Theatrical piracy took on new life with the 1856 amendments to the United States copyright laws. Before 1856,
published playscripts were not protected from unauthorized performance, only from unauthorized physical
duplication. Publication effectively allowed the public to use the play in any way not explicitly forbidden by
statute: by contrast, plays that had been performed but not printed and sold were considered unpublished and
so continued to be protected by the law. Consequently, most playwrights never printed their works, seeking to
prevent potential pirates from duplicating the texts and staging the plays. By extending copyright protection to
performances of published plays, the 1856 amendments sought to encourage publication of playscripts, but the
physical texts also became available to those who chose to duplicate them illegally.
The passage suggests that the 1856 amendments to the United States copyright laws failed to