The idea of the Copyright has a very interesting history. One might think that given its importance and power in today’s society that its development as a concept would be straight-forward and direct. But in actuality, the copyright as we know it came into being moreso as an indirect result of the politics of control and the fear of an educated populous.

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg

It all begins with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg sometime in the year 1440. As the invention became more and more popular throughout europe, a great many Crowns and religious institutions began to see them as a threat to their positions and power. At that time, the dissemination of knowledge came solely from the church. In fact, during this time the church was the institution responsible for educating the masses. But not everyone received the education they had to give. Education was a privilege of the wealthy and elite, or those committed to a life in the church.

The first official act to counteract the power of the printed word took place in England under the reign of Queen Mary I. During this time the Crown granted the exclusive right to publish all of the printed works in England to the Stationer’s Company in 1557. In return for this Crown approved monopoly, the Stationer’s Company would be required to seek Crown approval on every project it printed within the realm. Thus giving the Crown total control over the dissemination of information to the people.

Queen Mary I of England & Ireland

Then in 1643, the British Parliament formally enacted what is known as the Licensing Order, in which Parliament – not the Crown – would grant the monopoly of all printed works to the Stationer’s Company, requiring approval for distribution to come through Parliament. Under this act, Parliament empowered the Stationer’s Company to search, seize and destroy any books found to be offensive to the Government as well as arrest and imprison any offensive writers, printers and publishers.

As the years passed, this act further evolved. In 1663, Sir Roger L’Estrange, having recently assumed the reigns as Charles II’s Chief Licensor and Surveyor of the Press, devised several acts to further tighten the Crown and Parliament’s control over the printed word. Through these acts, an author was now required to attach his name to anything that he penned. That way any individual that printed writings without the Crown’s approval could be more effectively and efficiently found, punished, and made an example of.

Sir Roger L'Estrange

In 1694 the Licensing Act and the Stationer’s Company monopoly was set to expire. The Stationer’s Company lobbied the British Parliament to renew both the act and the monopoly from which they benefitted, but unfortunately the Parliament and the Crown had other more pressing issues to deal with.

The timing of expiration of the Licensing Act just happened to coincide with what is known as England’s ‘Glorious Revolution’. This event resulted in the dethroning of King James II (a devout Catholic) by a group of united members of Parliament, with the help of  William III (a Dutch provincial governor and a stark defender of Protestantism) whom eventually assumed England’s throne, along with his wife, Mary.

As Sir L’Estrange was staunchly loyal to King Charles II, he was judged suspicious and was arrested during the coup, along with all of the officers of the Chief Licensor and Surveyor of the Press’s office. Since there was a complete change in staffing, there also came a complete shift in attitude towards the printed word.

This attitude pervaded not just Parliament, but the greater society as well. Since the coup had been led by Parliamentarians, when William III assumed the throne he did so with significantly less power under the auspices of the new English Bill of Rights. Under this agreement, the Crown could no longer interfere with the law, could no longer impose new taxes, could no longer wage war without Parliament, and now had to respect the freedom of speech and debate. In fact, England would never see a Monarch with absolute power on its throne again.

By the time William and Mary had ascended the throne, English society had become more open and its appetite for the printed word quite powerful. Subjects were no longer off limits and the fears of free information began to wane. The Licensing Act slipped into obscurity and was allowed to expire. The Stationer’s Company monopoly remained in force until 1695.

Then in 1710, under the Reign of Queen Anne, the first formal copyright law was enacted. Titled “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” this act took the exclusive reproduction rights away from the Stationer’s Company and vested them specifically with the author. In addition, these rights were now given a time frame of 14 years (21 years if a book had already been printed prior to this act coming into effect) and were renewable for another 14 years if the author was still alive and wished to do so.

The act also required that all printers must submit 9 copies of whatever their press had printed to the Stationer’s Company for distribution to the various Royal Libraries, all now available to the public at large.

The Statute of Anne was in force in England for 132 years until 1842 when it was repealed and replaced with the Copyright Act of 1842. In this act, exclusive rights to the author’s work would last the entire lifetime of the author plus 7 years after the author’s death. In addition, further refinements were made to govern rights that had been sold by authors to publishers or printers. This is also the first act to begin to enforce a notion of copyright infringement.

Having recently won independence from England, the United States enacted the Copyright Act of 1790, though it used the England’s Statute of Anne as its framework. Being enacted for what is described as the “encouragement of learning,” this law secured to american authors the “sole right and liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing and vending” their “maps, charts, and books” for 14 years, with the right to renew for one additional 14 year term should the copyright holder still be alive. In addition, copies of the printed works wer required to be submitted to the Library of Congress. The bill was signed by President George Washington on May 31, 1790.

Through the years the amount of years that an author is granted rights has been extended. In 1831 the term was doubled from 14 years to 28 years + 14 year renewal, allowing a total of 42 years of rights with renewal. In 1909, the renewal term was doubled to 28 years to match the initial copyright term, now offering a total of 56 years of exclusive rights.

In 1976, America’s bicentennial, Congress changed the default copyright to the life of the author + 50 years without an option for renewal. Currently in the United States, exclusive rights are granted to authors for their lifetime + 70 years, or for works of corporate authors, 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever is earlier.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Design in History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.