Stephen James Joyce

[3] As a trustee, he brought numerous lawsuits or threats of legal action against scholars, biographers, and artists attempting to quote from Joyce's literary work or personal correspondence.

[4] In 2004, Joyce threatened legal action against the Irish government when the Rejoyce Dublin 2004 festival proposed public reading of excerpts of Ulysses on Bloomsday.

[4] On 1 January 2012, 70 calendar years after James Joyce's death, all of his works entered the public domain[4] in much of the world, a transition "talked up in certain quarters as though it were a bookish version of the destruction of the Death Star, with Stephen Joyce cast as a highbrow Darth Vader suddenly no longer in a position to breathe heavily down the necks of rebel Joyceans.

"[7] "On New Year's Eve [December 31, 2011], the Twitter feed of UbuWeb ... posted a link to an article in The Irish Times about the expiry of European copyright on the work of James Joyce.

"[8] However, although it is no longer necessary to receive permission from James Joyce's estate to quote from the work he published in his lifetime, "the status of posthumous publications — the letter[s] and manuscripts, for instance ... is still unclear".