"At Ben's invitation, Charles Dickens comes to Virginia City to give a reading from "Oliver Twist" while on a reading / lecture tour in America. While there, he stays at the Ponderosa. He becomes enraged by the townsfolk's casual attitude toward distribution of copies of his stories published without protection of copyright laws. After confronting the local newspaper publisher, the newspaper's office is destroyed. Already having lost the esteem of the townsfolk, Dickens now finds that the townsfolk blame him for the violence."Here are some links with historical information:
Struggles For Copyright Laws
When Charles Dickens fell out with America (from BBC)
Bootlegging Dickens: Author Looks At 'Bookaneers' (from NPR)