Copyright is a form of law that guarantees the copyright owner an exclusive right to distribute or reproduce a particular piece of intellectual work with a legislative intent to promote learning and disseminate knowledge. The history of copyright illustrates the importance of having a developed legal system that protects one’s intellectual property. Copyright, though created with good intention, has recently showed indications of its failure to adequately respond to the demand of time. The nemesis of copyright rears it head during the recent debates around the idea of SOPA and PIPA, which undoubtedly will retard creativity and innovations, chain human’s nature to share, prevent ideas derive from existing texts and limit the access to books.
Recent controversies on copyright question whether this concept has always been harmful to the reading society, or if it gradually has outgrown itself to becoming pillories of creativity and obstacles to dissemination of knowledge. The eighteenth century witnessed the first copyright legislation that led to the fall of the “high monopoly period” (Fergus, 209). It also witnessed a few critical cases in the history of copyright in the United Kingdom that shaped reading practices at that time period and copyright legislations around the world today, and the growth of writing.
The eighteenth century is seen as the most crucial era in the development of copyright history and reading population. The first copyright legislation was established in 1709 in the city of London. This Act of 1709, also known as the Statue of Anne, succeeded the Stationers’ Company’s monopoly of book printing which was refused renewal by the English Parliament in 1694 (Davenport, 30). The 1709 Act subsequently became the model for other countries and the tide converged in 1887 to form the Berne Convention of international copyright law, which played the role of precursor for subsequent legislations created by European and other world trade bodies (Goldstein, 126).
Before the dawning of copyright, the Stationers’ Company largely controlled the book printing and publishing industry. The company imposed strict regulations to retain copyright to generate profits, and the government corrupted this company with printing monopolies for censorship of its press (Gaskell,183). The Statue of Anne had weakened the power of the Stationers’ Company and marked the end of the censorship era, this increased the transparency of the government (Deazley, 34). The tradition of bible reading in the United Kingdom is believed to be the key liberating force multiplying British reading population during the beginning of the seventeenth century, and this increase of literacy rate subsequently germinated the growth of the amount of writing in the eighteenth century (Siskins, 3). The middle decades of the eighteenth century witnessed different forms of investment in writing, especially periodicals (Siskins, 4). The production of writing ushered by the protection of legislations led to a fundamental change in readership, allowing them the opportunity to “behave” like writers, and as a result further increased the production of writing (Siskin, 6).
Although the first copyright legislation was aimed to encourage learning, its protection on the right’s owner have caused monopolization, and resulted in highly unaffordable reading materials and limited audience, as a result retarded the production of writing. St. Clair believes that the reading population only widened after 1774 when the Statue of Anne led to a few battle of booksellers-one of which was the case of Donaldson and Becket 1775, that gave enormous benefits for the liberation and growth of the reading population (Specks, 113). The case of Donaldson and Becket in 1775 ruled that copyright should be of limited duration, and perpetual copyright was illegal, and the judgment massively influenced prevailing reading practices at that time period (Fergus, 210). Before this case, copyright was perpetual and its owner was granted with lengthy protection, putting readership in this period at the mercy of suppliers. It has opened the doors for inexpensive reprints and affordable books, allowing low income groups the accessibility to text, and motivated more readers to write. The relaxation of the copyright sowed the seeds for intellectual liberations that excited the minds of future generations, and ignited the insatiable human desires to attain betterment of his living standards.
Word Count: 687, excluding titles and bibliography
Keywords: Copyright, 18th Century, England, reading practices, Statue of Anne, literacy.
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