The Public Sphere and the Emergence of Copyright: Areopagitica, the Stationers’ Company, and the Statute of Anne*
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What Is the Point of Copyright History? Reflections on Copyright at Common Law in 1774 by H
CREATe Working Paper 2016/04 (March 2016) What is the Point of Copyright History? Reflections on Copyright at Common Law in 1774 by H. Tomás Gómez-Arostegui Editors Elena Cooper Ronan Deazley University of Glasgow Queen’s University Belfast [email protected] [email protected] CREATe Working Paper Series DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.47710. This release was supported by the RCUK funded Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe), AHRC Grant Number AH/K000179/1. What is the Point of Copyright History? Reflections on Copyright at Common Law in 1774 by H. Tomás Gómez-Arostegui Elena Cooper and Ronan Deazley (eds) 1. What is the Point of Copyright History? 3 Elena Cooper and Ronan Deazley 2. The Persistent Myth of Perpetual Common Law Copyright 11 Howard B. Abrams 3. A Few Remarks on Copyright at Common law in 1774 24 Lionel Bently 4. A Page of History 31 Oren Bracha 5. Donaldson and the Muse of History 38 Mark Rose 6. Personal Comments on a Policy Perspective 43 Charlotte Waelde 7. A Reply to my Colleagues regarding Donaldson v Becket 46 H. Tomás Gómez-Arostegui 8. Excerpts from the Symposium 61 Elena Cooper and Ronan Deazley (eds) Appendix 83 What is the Point of Copyright History? Elena Cooper and Ronan Deazley An understanding of the past – how we got to where we are today – informs the approach of much recent scholarship about copyright. This has been traced to a ‘historical turn’ in scholarship in the late 1990s, which marked a move away from the more forward-looking approach of the earlier twentieth century, when lawyers had little time for historical perspectives. -
Licensing of the Press Act of 1662
Cum privilegio: Licensing of the Press Act of 1662 The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Nipps, Karen. 2014. “Cum Privilegio: Licensing of the Press Act of 1662.” The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 84 (4) (October): 494–500. doi:10.1086/677787. Published Version doi:10.1086/677787 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17219056 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Cum privilegio: Licensing of the Press Act of 1662 HISTORY OF THE BOOK opyright has troubled humans for almost as long as our thoughts have been re- corded. The ancient Greeks, Jews, and Romans all set down laws concerning an author’s C personal rights, a sponsor/publisher’s economic rights, an owner’s rights to an individual copy, and a ruler’s right to censor and to regulate the industry. The Church and various gov- ernments ðboth totalitarian and democraticÞ have tried copyrighting any number of times. We are still at it today. As of the writing of this piece, currently pending in Washington is legisla- tion that some have referred to as “the next great copyright act” ðPallante 2013Þ. This act—if it ever comes to pass—will have the American government ruling on procedures regarding such varied property as orphan works, musical recordings, film, and fashion design, particularly as they relate to digitization and the Internet. -
Literary Property in Scotland in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Edinburgh Research Explorer Literary Property in Scotland in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Citation for published version: MacQueen, H 2016, Literary Property in Scotland in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. in I Alexander & HT Gomez-Arostegui (eds), Research Handbook on the History of Copyright Law. Research Handbooks in Intellectual Property, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 119-138. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781783472406 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.4337/9781783472406 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Research Handbook on the History of Copyright Law Publisher Rights Statement: This is a draft of a chapter that has been published by Edward Elgar Publishing in The History of Copyright Law; A Handbook of Contemporary Research edited by Isabella Alexander and H. Tomás Gómez-Arostegui, published in 2016. http://www.e-elgar.com/shop/the-history-of-copyright-law General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 [fresh page][cn] 7. [ct] Literary property in Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries [au]Hector MacQueen [a] 1. -
§ a Statute of Anne (1710)
Copyright Enactments Prior to the 1909 Act, Including the English Statute of Anne (1710) and Original State Statutes from 1783 Statute of Anne (1710) An act for the encouragement of learning, by the vesting the copies of printed books in the author's or purchasers of such copies, during the times therein mentioned. WHEREAS printers, booksellers, and other persons have of late frequently taken the liberty of printing, reprinting, and publishing, or causing to be printed, reprinted, and published, books and other writings, without the consent of the authors or proprietors of such books and writings, to their very great detriment, and too often to the ruin of them and their families: for preventing therefore such practices for the future, and for the encouragement of learned men to compose and write useful books; may it please your Majesty, that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the tenth day of April, one thousand seven hundred and ten, the author of any book or books already printed, who hath not transferred to any other the copy or copies of such book or books, share or shares thereof, or the bookseller or booksellers, printer or printers, or other person or persons, who hath or have purchased or acquired the copy or copies of any book or books, in order to print or reprint the same, shall have the sole right and liberty -
Quick Overview: Regulation of the Press Henry VIII Ruled 1509–47
Quick overview: Regulation of the Press Henry VIII ruled 1509–47 Act of 1534: • prevented “aliens” becoming printers • concentrated the production of books in London Proclamation of 1538 against “naughty printed books”: “no book in English was to be printed without the approval of a royal licenser” (Blagden 30–1) Edward VI (Protestant) ruled 1547 – 1553 Edward is fiercely Protestant; imposes the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 (replaced Latin services with English) proclamations against popish books are issued by Edward Quick overview: Regulation of the Press • 1555: royal proclamation prohibits the printing or importation of the works of Luther, Calvin, Tindale, and other reformers • 1557: the Worshipful Company of Stationers receives royal charter (purpose is to prevent propagation of the Protestant Reformation) • very small membership has sole right throughout England to print, publish, and sell printed works Mary I 1558: proclamation directed against heretical reigned 1553–8 • and treasonable books including the service books of Edward VI What was in the 1557 Charter? • Only freemen who were members of the Stationers’ Co. or those with royal permission were allowed to print books • Stationers’ Co. authorities had the right to “search the houses and business premises of all printers, bookbinders and booksellers” (Blagden 21) Quick overview: Regulation of the Press • 1558: Injunctions geven by the Quenes Majestie: no book or paper to be printed without license of the Queen, her privy council, Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Bishop of London, or chancellors of both universities • 1566: the Star chamber issues a decree against the printing, importing, or selling of prohibited books • 1579: John Stubbe has his right hand cut off for his critique of proposed marriage of the queen and Duke of Anjou Elizabeth I • 1584: William Carter, printer, condemned for high treason reigned 1558–1603 and hanged, bowelled and quartered no manner of book or paper should be printed unless it: “be first licenced by her maiestie by expresse wordes in writynge, or by .vi. -
Censorship As a Typographical Chimera
Preliminary Communication UDC 070.13:808.5Milton, J. Received December 29th, 2009 Béla Mester Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Philosophical Research, Etele út 59-61, HU–1119 Budapest [email protected] Censorship as a Typographical Chimera John Milton and John Locke on Gestures1 Abstract The aim of my paper is to show some elements in Milton’s and Locke’s political writin gs, depending on their attitudes to different media. Milton in his argumentation against censorship must demonstrate that all the ancient instances for censorship, usually cited in his century, can be interpreted as examples of another phenomenon. However, Milton, analysing loci of Plato’s Republic and some Scriptural topics, recognises the scope and significance of nonconceptual, nonprinted, nonverbal forms of communication; he des cribes them as signs of childish, female or uneducated behaviours, as valueless phenomena from the point of view of political liberty incarnated in the freedom of press. John Locke’s attitude is the same. I will show a chain of ideas, similar to Milton’s one, in his Two Tracts on Government and in his Epistola de tolerantia, focusing the analyses on the concept of adiaphora (indifferent things). Key words censorship, orality, typographical age, Plato on censorship, adiaphora, John Milton’s Areo pagitica, John Locke’s Epistola de tolerantia The main topic of my presentation is John Milton’s argumentation and art of rhetoric in his Areopagitica. However, Milton was not a researcher of the media, and his aim in his booklet was not an analysis of homo typographicus’ thought on the freedom of thought itself, depended on the medium of the printed book; his thinking inevitably met the links between our ideals on the freedom of thought and different media by which we express them. -
How WE LOST OUR MORAL RIGHTS and the DOOR CLOSED on NON-ECONOMIC VALUES in COPYRIGHT
THE JOHN MARSHALL REVIEW OF INTELLECTUALF' PROPERTY LAW How WE LOST OUR MORAL RIGHTS AND THE DOOR CLOSED ON NON-ECONOMIC VALUES IN COPYRIGHT SUSAN P. LIEMER ABSTRACT The Visual Artists Rights Act ('VARA") is a piece of modern legislation preceded by a rich history, with a significant gap. As early as the 1400's, patents were offered as economic incentive to develop new processes in the trades and applied arts. By the 1700's, the Statute of Anne became the first statute to protect the literary work of individual creators. The Engravers' Act of 1735 soon followed, expanding this protection to include the first works of visual art and providing the precursor to the modern right of integrity. Millar v. Taylor was the landmark case that alluded to moral rights protection and found copyright existed at common law; however, it was replaced by statutory copyright in Donaldson v. Beckott. From then on, only the statute could prescribe protection. This effectively closed the door on moral rights protection in the United States, because the Donaldson interpretation provided the groundwork for interpretation of the first United States copyright statute. Until VARA, the United States copyright law focused on economic protection, disregarding most other values. This article traces moral rights through the early intellectual property law history, discusses the importance of the rights granted, and argues that VARA is most useful if jurists and legislators become aware of the history and the legislation itself. Copyright © 2005 The John Marshall Law School Cite as Susan P. Liemer, How We Lost Our MoralRights and the Door Closed on Non -Economic Values in Copyright,5 J. -
Schreyer Honors College Department of English John
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH JOHN MILTON’S DIVORCE TRACTS AND GENDER EQUALITY IN FAMILY LAW MADISON V. SOPIC Spring 2013 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a baccalaureate degree in English with honors in English Reviewed and approved* by the following: Marcy North Associate Professor of English Thesis Supervisor Lisa Sternlieb English Honors Advisor Honors Adviser * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. i ABSTRACT In recent years, John Milton’s divorce tracts have been deemed predictive of modern divorce laws. Moreover, with a new wave of feminist criticism appearing in the 1970s, such critics as Catherine Gimelli Martin, Gina Hausknecht, Maria Magro, and Harvey Couch have asserted that Milton’s divorce tracts are not only predictive, but that they promote the rights of women in divorce law in a way that has made Milton nearly prophetic. However, this thesis disputes the idea that Milton is supportive of modern gender equality within his divorce tracts, and asks such questions as: Does Milton attempt to gain an equal opportunity to divorce for both genders in his work? Does he desire divorce for the betterment of both spouses? And, finally, does Milton offer women any protection following a divorce? These questions are answered by means of closely examining Milton’s primary text, as well as multiple historical variables, such as religion, language, societal norms, and common outcomes of divorce for women. Through an examination of these factors, it is ultimately deciphered that Milton is not supportive of gender equality in divorce law, and thus, his divorce tracts are not predictive of modern divorce legislation. -
Pre-Copyright Rights Carl W
Notre Dame Law Review Volume 14 | Issue 4 Article 3 5-1-1939 Pre-Copyright Rights Carl W. Doozan Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Carl W. Doozan, Pre-Copyright Rights, 14 Notre Dame L. Rev. 391 (1939). Available at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol14/iss4/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Law Review by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PRE-COPYRIGHT RIGHTS To occupy himself during his spare moments a prominent citizen wrote a small biographichl sketch of a famous old character in the community and upon completion passed around the manuscript to a few close friends. An editor of a local" publication gained possession of the manuscript and without permission published the article. Immediately, the question arose, what are the author's rights? The work of course was not copyrighted. In that event he has no rights, you say? Well, perhaps - but be not too hasty in your reply. Copyright law, like the Constitution is a topic which makes fine conversational material among intelligent men, but con- cerning which very few have actual first hand information - surprisingly so, in view of the fact that copyright concerns almost exclusively intelligent men and women. Artists, pro- fessors, musicians, photographers are only a few of those affected by these laws and who should be vitally interested in knowing what their rights are. -
LIBERTY AS PRO-GRESSION: a STUDY of the REVOLUTIONS IDEALIZED in AREOPAGITICA, the MARRIAGE of HEAVEN and HELL and the MATRIX B
LIBERTY AS PRO-GRESSION: A STUDY OF THE REVOLUTIONS IDEALIZED IN AREOPAGITICA, THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL AND THE MATRIX by Adalberto Teixeira de Andrade Rocha A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras: Estudos Literários Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 2007 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my Professor and adviser Luiz Fernando Ferreira Sá, for bringing my attention to literature in the first place through the works of John Milton. Thank you for helping me realize what it means to read. To my mother, for the example of commitment and hard work; and for her life-long dedication to my sister and I. Special thanks for putting up with me for yet one more year as I returned home for the writing of this thesis. To my father, for all the support and for always believing in me. Thank you for helping me keep all sorts of things into perspective and my priorities straight. To my great friends Fernando Barboza, Leda Edna and Eddie Aragão, not only for your endless hospitality, but for your sincere friendship and presence during both the difficult and great moments. In my distance from home, I have found one in all three of you. To Miriam Mansur, who has helped me in more ways than one during the writing of this thesis. Abstract Impressions of truth and liberty are time and space specific. Historically, works of art stand as material manifestations of the physical conversions required by ideologies in their “hailings” of individuals and reminders of those individuals’ statuses as always-already subjects. -
The Senses and Human Nature in a Political Reading of Paradise Lost
Chapter 8 The Senses and Human Nature in a Political Reading of Paradise Lost Jens Martin Gurr Milton, so far as I know, is the first to turn to the story of the Fall to explain the failure of a revolution.1 Introduction Let us begin with what seems a politically inconspicuous passage on the five senses. Here is Adam, lecturing Eve on reason, fancy and the senses: But know that in the soul Are many lesser faculties that serve Reason as chief; among these fancy next Her office holds; of all external things, Which the five watchful senses represent, She forms imaginations, airy shapes, Which reason joining or disjoining, frames All what we affirm or what deny, and call Our knowledge or opinion [. .].2 What we find here is a rather standard early modern understanding of the relationship between reason, fancy and the senses.3 But what is illuminating is the way in which this discussion is metaphorically politicized by means of the body politic analogy: the relations among the inner faculties, as so often in Milton, are rendered in the political terminology of rule, domination and 1 Hill Ch., Milton and the English Revolution (London: 1977) 352. 2 Milton John, Paradise Lost, ed. Fowler A., 2nd ed. (London: 1998) V, 100–108. Further refer- ences by book and verse will be to this edition. 3 For this as ‘a fairly straightforward account of Aristotelian faculty psychology’, cf. Moshenska J., “ ‘Transported Touch’: The Sense of Feeling in Milton’s Eden”, English Literary History 79, 1 (2012) 1–31, 24, n. -
John Milton, Areopagitica (1644)1
1 Primary Source 10.3 – Milton JOHN MILTON, AREOPAGITICA (1644)1 John Milton (1608–74) is widely considered the greatest writer in English after Shakespeare. A private tutor, an excellent school in London, seven years at Cambridge University, and six years of self-directed study made him an extraordinarily learned man with fluency in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian; vast knowledge of modern writing; and intimate familiarity with the literature and thought of ancient Greece and Rome, of late antiquity, and of the Middle Ages. From an early age, he believed himself destined to contribute a great creative work, something that would do credit to the gifts with which the Lord had endowed him. A deeply believing Christian and an unwavering advocate of religious, civil, and political liberty, he devoted those gifts for twenty years to the service of the Puritan and Republican causes. During this era, he penned Areopagitica, probably the greatest polemical defense of the freedom of the press ever written. Following the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, Milton had to withdraw from political life. Seven years later, he published his masterwork, Paradise Lost, an epic poem recounting the Biblical story of the Fall of Man in over 10,000 lines of blank verse. In Areopagitica, Milton deploys impassioned arguments, vast historical knowledge, extraordinary erudition, and powerful logic to demand the abrogation of a law of 1643 authorizing twenty licensors, or censors, in England to approve or reject book and pamphlet manuscripts before publication, a general policy (not always strictly enforced) dating to the mid-1500s but abolished in 1641 by the Long Parliament.