[A2k] Setting the Copyright Record Straight

[Michael S. Hart]

Setting the Copyright Record Straight

Or at least straighter.


While I know hundreds of times more about copyright than I had
ever wanted to know, I do not consider myself an expert, yet I
must speak up when the acknowledged experts believe what I see
as lies and propaganda written by The Stationers, WIPO and all
those who passed in between then and now.

For the record, I state that The Stationers, and predecessors,
had a virtual monopoly on our written history.

This monopoly was shattered by The Gutenberg Press.

The reason was that since virtually all scribes fell under the
protection, and thus the control, of royal, military, and also
the religious powers of the times, that power, and the scribes
themselves, were pretty much the ultimate in censors, controls
and all other biases, slants, distortions, etc., of history.

Our history.

Only it wasn't.

It was their history, not as they saw it, as they wanted it.

///

Thus, we are totally at the not so tender mercies of those who
had this control, and that includes the first copyright laws.

Anyone who doesn't understand the troubles times of Queen Anne
when she began her reign simply cannot understand the pressure
under which she finally gave in to, after 250 years of monarch
after monarch after monarch, including Cromwell, refusing!

Anne was in deep trouble, not that Henry VIII, Elizabeth, etc.
had not been, but her critics were so vociferous through media
provided by The Gutenberg Press, that she felt she had to stop
their freedom of speech.

Do not forget that from The Statute of Anne to George III, who
was perhaps the most famous of all royal censors, was only the
period of 50 years. . .censorship was a big thing in the U.K.,
from Queen Anne onwards.

Such trends should be obvious to all interested parties.



What Happened in 1710?


>From today's perspective, the most important thing to happen as
a result of The Statute of Anne was that the publishers, known,
in the U.K., at least, as The Stationers, got back much of that
monopoly they had enjoyed naturally up to The Gutenberg Press.

However, this was no natural monopoly.

This was a government sponsored monopoly.

Since The Stationers could not compete with The Gutenberg Press
they made it illegal.

If you don't think this actually took place, read about how The
Stationers literlly broke up or burned The Gutenberg Presses of
their competitors. . .or did both.

This was no simple law, it was a counter-revolution!!!

A revolution against free speech on the one hand, and progress,
on the other.

The trouble is that we are still stuck with the result today!!!

See:  "The Law of Unplanned Consquences."

This did not, as Mr. Stallman claims, ruin The Stationers, but,
rather it allowed them to legally regain their monopoly, after,
albeit, after 250 years, but they did regain it.

After The Statute of Anne there were only 12 printing presses a
person could go to in the U.K. to have anything printed at all,
AND THEY WERE ALL IN LONDON!!!

If you read anything at all about those times, you understand a
little about how different Londoners were, and how much control
they had of all U.K. society.

All other presses were made illegal, smashed, burned, etc., and
the only exceptions were the two student edition presses at the
colleges of Cambridge and Oxford.

Now, perhaps, just perhaps, you might understand a little more,
just a little, about how "The Pamphleteers" were a force in the
revolution that created The United States.



More Details


Richard Stallman and a few other acknowledged copyright experts
have recently raised a few issues about how our copyright laws,
and those of most of The Western World, got started; whether or
not The Stationers Guild, later The Stationers Company, gained,
lost, or broke even when The Statute of Anne took place [1710].

To analyze this watershed event, we must examine events from an
assortment of periods both before and after this statute.

Obviously, at least to anyone who is willing to read histories,
the various collections of secular and religious scribes had an
almost complete monopoly on what was written down, back all the
way to the dawn of recorded history.

As with nearly any history, it was written by the insiders, the
people in power, and very little mention was made of the others
and particularly of their points of view. . .there were not any
other points of view when it came down to it, other than royal,
military or religious powers throughout most of our history.

The ancient Greeks are one of our best counterexamples, and the
fact that we use their examples so often might actually mean it
is overly influenced our viewpoint of so many histories that in
most cases were, at best, benevolent dictatorships.


What Took Place

What actually took place in nearly all of these was that scribe
circles were pretty much under the control of the above list of
religious, royal and military leaders, and in rare cases, among
the politicians of the time, who may not have been all that far
above the level of the politicians we have today.