This trial was one of the first to test the Statute of Anne copyright law in regards to Irish publishing independence.
Although neither held the copyright to all of Swift's works, the suit became a legal struggle over Irish rights, which were eventually denied by the English courts.
The basis of the law protected the rights of the author, and not the publisher, of the works, and Swift was unwilling to support a lawsuit against Faulkner.
With Swift's reaction used as a basis, the lawsuit was later seen as a struggle between the rights of Irishmen to print material that were denied under English law.
[2] Motte took great care to protect the identity of the author, and employed five publishing houses to speed production of the book and avoid unlicensed copying.
[8] On 14 August 1725, Swift wrote to Charles Ford that his work, Gulliver's Travels, was finished, however, he soon added a scene referring to the Drapier's Letters.
[1] On 9 October 1733, Swift wrote: Now, you may please to remember how much I complained of Motts suffering some friend of his (I suppose it was Mr Took a Clergy-man now dead) not onely to blot out some things that he thought might give offence, but to insert a good deal of trash contrary to the Author's manner and Style, and Intention.Three editions of Gulliver's Travels were produced in London during 1726 and a "corrected" edition of Motte's works were printed by John Hyde in Dublin.
This has suggested to some critics that the Faulkner edition was a later rework of Gulliver's Travels and not just a correction to printing related mistakes.
Some critics speculate that Swift turned to having his work printed without public sponsorship because he was afraid of breaking his commitments to Pope and his publisher Motte.
[17] Regardless of what Swift may or may not be planning, he wrote to Motte in December 1732 and said: "I have cause to believe that some of our printers will collected all they think to be mine, and print them by subscription, which I will never encourage nor oppose.
"[18] On 9 February 1733, Faulkner advertised his future publication of Swift's collected works in four volumes in the Dublin Journal.
Even without the backing of Swift, Motte turned to the English legal system to halt the introduction of Faulkner's edition.
But I am so incensed against the oppresions from England, and have so little regard to the laws they make, that I do, as a clergyman, encourage the merchants both to export wool and woollen manufactures to any country in Europe, or anywhere else, and conceal it from the Custom-house officers, as I would hide my purse from a highwayman, if he came to rob me on the road, although England hath made a law to the contrary; and so I would encourage our booksellers here to sell your author's books printed here, and send them to all the towns in England, if I could do it with safety and profit; because I repeat, it is no offence against God, or the laws of the country I live in.