How Did Copyright Law Come Into Existence?

Posted by Copyright Law on July 9th, 2009 at 04:24am

How and when was the copyright law created, and if you can, who created it?

2 Comments for How Did Copyright Law Come Into Existence?

1. WP Robot | July 9th, 2009 at 8:33 am

It was an invention of the British Empire.
Basically…. it was becoming unprofitable to write a book… because if you did write a new work, and made a contract with a printer to produce the book, a soon as it was released OTHER printers would start making exact copies.
The original printer…. had to pay a percentage to the author. The OTHER printers had no such obligation…. so it was far more profitable to let someone else publish it first.
This of course is an unsustainable course. Growth of fiction and non-fiction works would cease… and new sources of information and entertainment would be kept secret unless a solution could be found.
See the British Statute of Anne, 1710.
2. Rodney | July 9th, 2009 at 9:28 am

The concept of copyright originates with the Statute of Anne (1710) in Britain. It established the author of a work as the owner of the right to copy that work and the concept of a fixed term for that copyright. It was created as an act “for the encouragement of learning”, as it had been noted at the time that publishers were reprinting the works of authors without their consent “to their very great detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families”.
This was enacted in 1709 and entering into force on 10 April 1710. It is generally considered to be the first fully-fledged copyright law. It is named for Queen Anne, during whose reign it was enacted.