 Gyles v Wilcox ( 1740 ) 26 ER 489 was a decision of the Court of Chancery of England that established the doctrine of fair abridgement , which would later evolve into the concept of fair use . The case was heard and the opinion written by Philip Yorke , 1st Earl of Hardwicke , and concerned Fletcher Gyles , a bookseller who had published a copy of Matthew Hale 's Pleas of the Crown . Soon after the initial publication , the publishers Wilcox and Nutt hired a writer named Barrow to abridge the book , and repackaged it as Modern Crown Law . Gyles sued for a stay on the book 's publishing , claiming his rights under the Statute of Anne had been infringed . 
