Copyright+History

Copyright originated primarily with the advent of printing and the commercial sale of printed works, ostensibly not long after Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type and the printing press in 1439. Copyright implies "All Rights Reserved" and protects the rights of authors to have their authorship acknowledged and to have control over the copying of their original works, particularly for commercial purposes. Typically copyright law protects original works for at least the lifetime of the work’s creator after which time many original works move into the Public Domain. With the advent of web based digital media, copyright legislation has evolved from protection for printed works to include photography, motion picture, audio files, all manner of academic and technical reference materials and myriad variations on these themes and although modern copyright law does provide for "Allowable Limits", "Fair Dealing" and "Moral Rights", it is incumbent on the end users of Internet content to be aware of and compliant with prevailing copyright law. While state and international copyright law have become bewilderingly complex, a few pieces of historical copyright legislation stand out. The following examples are sourced from Wikipedia.
 * A Brief History of Copyright**

(Please note this wiki's introduction to Creative Commons and Glossary for a further overview of copyright agreements and language.)

The statute is considered a "watershed event in Anglo-American copyright history ... transforming what had been the publishers' private law copyright into a public law grant". Under the statute, copyright was for the first time vested in authors rather than publishers; it also included provisions for the public interest, such as a [|legal deposit] scheme. The Statute was an influence on copyright law in several other nations, including the [|United States], and even in the 21st century is "frequently invoked by modern judges and academics as embodying the utilitarian underpinnings of copyright law".
 * 1710; The Statute of Anne (c.19), an** [|**act**] **of the** [|**Parliament of Great Britain**] **, was the first statute to provide for** [|**copyright**] **regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties.**

Reference: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute of Anne]

The Berne Convention requires its signatories to recognize the copyright of works of authors from other signatory countries (known as members of the //Berne Union//) in the same way as it recognizes the copyright of its own nationals. For example, French copyright law applies to anything published or performed in France, regardless of where it was originally created. In addition to establishing a system of equal treatment that internationalized copyright amongst signatories, the agreement also required member states to provide strong minimum standards for copyright law. Copyright under the Berne Convention must be automatic; it is prohibited to require formal registration (note however that when the United States joined the Convention in 1988, it continued to make [|statutory damages] and [|attorney's fees] only available for registered works). The Berne Convention authorizes countries to allow "fair" uses of copyrighted works in other publications or broadcasts.The Agreed Statement of the parties to the [|WIPO Copyright Treaty] of 1996 states that: “It is understood that the mere provision of physical facilities for enabling or making a communication does not in itself amount to communication within the meaning of this Treaty or the Berne Convention.”This language may mean that Internet service providers are not liable for the infringing communications of their users.
 * 1886; The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an** [|**international agreement**] **governing** [|**copyright**] **, which was first accepted in** [|**Berne**] **,** [|**Switzerland**] **, in 1886.**

Reference: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works]

In the two centuries after the [|Statute of Anne] of 1709, which afforded copyright protection to books, other works were afforded copyright protection either through case law, as in the case of music, or through [|Acts of Parliament], as in the case of engravings, paintings, drawings and photographs, in legislation such as the Engraving Copyright Act 1734 and the Fine Arts Copyright Act 1862. The Copyright Act 1911 consolidated previous copyright statutes, and apart from minor exceptions, the Copyright Act 1911 repealed all previous copyright legislation and established a single statute covering all forms of copyright. The 1911 Act implemented the [|Berne Convention], which abolished the [|common law copyright] in unpublished works and responded to technological developments by conferring copyright on a new type of works not mentioned in the Berne Convention, namely [|sound recordings]. The 1911 Act abolished the need for registration at the [|Stationers' Hall] and provided that copyright is established upon the creation of a work. However, as the 1911 Act come into effect at different times in different countries of the [|Commonwealth], registration at Stationers' Hall continued to be required in some Commonwealth countries after 1911.The Act also stated that copyright arose in the act of creation, not the act of publishing. The scope of copyright was further widened and producers of [|sound recordings] were granted the exclusive right to prevent other reproducing their recordings, or playing them in public. The act provided that the copyright in literary, dramatic and music works could be infringed by the making of a film or other mechanical performance incorporating the copyrighted works.
 * 1911;** **The Copyright Act 1911**, also known as the **Imperial Copyright Act of 1911**, is an [|Act] of the [|Parliament of the United Kingdom] (UK) which received [|Royal Assent] on 16 December 1911. [1] The act established copyright law in the UK and the [|British Empire] . The act amended existing [|UK copyright law], as recommended by a [|Royal Commission] in 1878 and repealed all previous copyright legislation that had been in force in the UK. [3] The act also implemented changes arising from the first revision of the [|Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works] in 1908.

Reference: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright Act 1911]

US [|Copyright] law is governed by the federal [|Copyright Act of 1976]. The constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to create copyright law. Specifically, Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, (the [|Copyright Clause] )
 * 1976;** **The Copyright Law of the United States** encourages the creation of art and culture by rewarding authors and artists with a set of exclusive rights. Federal Copyright law grants authors and artists the exclusive right to make and sell copies of their works, the right to create derivative works, and the right to perform or display their works publicly. These exclusive rights are subject to a time limit, and generally expire 70 years after the author's death.

Reference: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright law of the United States]

There have been a variety of criticisms of this treaty, including that it is too broad (for example in its prohibition of circumvention of technical protection measures, even where such circumvention is used in the pursuit of legal and fair use rights) and that it applies a 'one size fits all' standard to all signatory countries despite widely differing stages of economic development and knowledge industry.
 * 1996;** **The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty**, abbreviated as the **WIPO Copyright Treaty** or **WCT**, is an international [|treaty] on [|copyright law] adopted by the member states of the [|World Intellectual Property Organization] (WIPO) in 1996. It provides additional protections for [|copyright] deemed necessary due to advances in information technology since the formation of previous copyright treaties before it. It ensures that computer programs are protected as literary works (Article 4), and that the arrangement and selection of material in [|databases] is protected (Article 5). It provides authors of works with control over their rental and distribution in Articles 6 to 8 which they may not have under the [|Berne Convention] alone. It also [|prohibits circumvention of technological measures] for the protection of works (Article 11) and unauthorized modification of rights management information contained in works (Article 12).

Reference: []


 * 2012;** **The Copyright Law of Canada** governs the legally enforceable rights to creative and artistic works under the laws of [|Canada] . Canada passed its first colonial copyright statute in 1832 but was subject to imperial copyright law established by Britain until 1921. Current [|copyright law] was established by the [|Copyright Act of Canada] which was first passed in 1921 and substantially amended in 1988, 1997 and 2012. All powers to legislate copyright law are in the jurisdiction of the [|Parliament of Canada] by virtue of section 91(23) of the [|Constitution Act 1867].

Reference: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright law of Canada]