[A2k] Setting the Copyright Record Straight

[Mark Perkins lists]

Michael

An interesting history - but not nuanced enough. While you are right to
highlight the impact of the turbulent history of the period on the
development of 'copyright', your period is too short. It would need to start
with;

the 'Printing Privileges' & 'Guild culture' of the prior feudal period;
followed by the rise of capitalism within this system, along with the author
& Stationers;
the English Revolution, the division & battle between (at least 3) sectors
monarchy, capitalists & workers/peasants;
lastly, post-restoration (period of Statue of Anne) where an
anti-monopolistic, anti (or limited) monarch rights spirit prevailed against
the Stationers (& other monopolies).

Along side this was the evolution of the system of censorship, which ebbed &
waned with the wider political struggles, finally being seperated from
copyright with the lapse of the Licensing Act.

While the Stationers may have wished to maintain the monopoly they had prior
to the lapse of the Licensing Act, and tried to post Statute of Anne, they
did not succeed. This much is clear from the case of Donaldson vs Becket,
where their wish for common law copyright to be recognised & continued was
defeated by the House of Lords (although the 'Law Lords' voted in favour).

Also, the question of the 'author' in the evolution of the regulation of
publishing is often ommitted. While you correctly state that 'authors' (or
'scribes') were under the control of their patrons & the Stationers (via the
Licensing Act), 'authors' in the sense of the 'Statute of Anne' was not a
current concept; this is something that evolved - and is still evolving -
along with, and within, 'copyright'.

Similarly, the development of the concept of the 'work' as distinct from the
'copy' was intimately related with that of the 'author' & 'copyright'. The
idea of 'the work' is still evolving, and creating problems for
jurisprudence; this was the case with the 'Statute of Anne', ensuing case
law (eg. Donaldson vs Becket), current copyright legislation & case law.

This is true also for the evolution of French 'droit d'auteur', although
that at least clearly distinguished between 'moral rights' which are
attributed to the person & inalienable, and the right to copy after first
publication.

You also state that "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!!!". Given that Donaldson vs Becket (& other
cases) involved Scottish publishers & printers - I do not see how this could
be the case.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: a2k-admin@lists.essential.org [mailto:a2k-admin@lists.essential.org]
On Behalf Of Michael S. Hart
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 5:16 AM
To: Union for the Public Domain
Cc: seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org; ecommerce@lists.essential.org;
A2K@lists.essential.org
Subject: [A2k] Setting the Copyright Record Straight

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.

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