Maarten Asscher (1957) studied law and assyriology at Leyden University. At the University of Amsterdam he specialized in copyright law. From 1977 to 1980 he was editor of Ars Aequi, the leading Dutch law review. In 1980 he started working for the literary publishing house J.M. Meulenhoff in Amsterdam, where in 1989 he became editorial director and in 1992 publisher and managing director. Since May 1998 he is head of the Arts Directorate at the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences. The October issue of Logos carries an article by him on the historic and future interplay between copyright and publishing, with some reference to the new media. Maarten Asscher has also published poetry, stories and a novella.