Copyright is a recent development when compared to the rest of Anglo-American common law, such as landowners’ rights which can be traced back to the Magna Carta (Godwin, 1998, p.164). For that reason, Shakespeare had no formal, legal guarantee to royalties for printed copies of his plays (Godwin, 1998, p.164). Furthermore, since 1557, the London Stationers’ Company had a monopoly, sanctioned by the Crown, over all English printing (Loewenstein, 2002, p.14). This monopoly was sustained throughout much of the seventeenth century (Loewenstein, 2002, p.14). However, as the printer and publisher trade became more widespread, both authors and publishers started appealing to Parliament asking them to provide protection from those printers who would take a published book, copy it into moveable type at their own press and sell their own copies (Godwin, 1998, p.164).
On February 26, 1707, a Stationers’ sponsored bill “for securing property in such books as have been or shall be purchased from, or reserved to, the authors thereof� (Loewenstein, 2002, p.14), was granted. Although, it was not until, January 11, 1710 that a new bill was presented to the House of Commons and on April 10 of the same year, the Statute of Anne was enacted by the British Parliament (Loewenstein, 2002, p.14). This statute was “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned� (Tallmo, n.d.). This statute provided a clear depiction of a traditional form of trade regulation, whereby the manufacturers of books are at the centre of its concerns, rather than the original creators themselves (Loewenstein, 2002, p.13).
It was granted that authors had property rights at common law for his or her published work, although the Statute of Anne was found to have taken away those common law rights and became the pre-eminent source of authorial protection (Loewenstein, 2002, p.17). On the other hand, the Statute of Anne was limited to only books (Patry, 2000, p.12). The central provisions of this statute were that existing works were granted rights of publication for twenty-one years from the effective date of April 10, 1710 (Patry, 2000, p.12). In addition, new works were granted the right for fourteen years as of the date of publication and the authors, if living at the expiration of that term, was granted the privilege of renewal for another fourteen more years, where the sole right of printing or disposing of copies is returned to the authors (Patry, 2000, p.12).
The Statute of Anne is generally considered to be the world’s first copyright law (Litman, 2001, p.15). Therefore, like most rights in the American legal system, copyright stems from that of the English Statute of Anne (Godwin, 1998, p.164). However it was not until 1790 that the United States passed its first copyright statute (Litman, 2001, p.15).
Godwin, M. (1998) Cyber Rights Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age, New York: Times Books, ISBN 0812928342.
Litman, J. (2001) Digital Copyright, New York: Prometheus Books, ISBN 1573928895.
Loewenstein, J. (2002) The Author’s Due, London: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226490408.
Patry, W. (2000) "Chapter 1 – Introduction: England and the Statute of Anne," retrieved September 27, 2004, from http://digital-law-online.info/patry/patry2.html.
Tallmo, K. (n.d.) “The Statute of Anne, 1710,� retrieved September 27, 2004, from http://www.copyrighthistory.com/anne.html.
Weena Tan 16:18, 22 Oct 2004 (EST)
