[Upd-discuss] Christian Engstrom on Copyright Law and Online Freedom

[Michael S. Hart]

On Sat, 11 Jul 2009, Richard Stallman wrote:

>     All the kings and queens for 250 years, including Cromwell, of all
>     people, refused to give the Stationers any kind of deal, so books,
>     and other forms of publishing took off via Gutenberg presses.
>
> What I have read before is just the opposite, but I do not
> have a reference to cite.
>
>     Might I suggest an hour of reading up on this???
>
> I've read about it before, but I don't have time or access to search
> for a reference.  I hope someone else can do so.

I find it difficult to understand how you could be fooled quite so
thoroughly by people rewriting history, whether it is from 1700's,
or from modern times.

The Stationers tried to get everyone to believe this law was their
ruination, but I've only run into two people in my whole life, who
actually believed them, you being the second one.

You really must make time to research this if you expect anyone to
believe you know what you are talking about, and look over failed,
even if passed, attempts, as well, to see just how much they would
have screwed everyone out of any right to copy ANYTHING if allowed
via many of those 250 years of efforts.

You have to realize that The Stationers actually WROTE the laws as
that was the way "patents" worked in those days, you wrote up what
you wanted and lobbied/submitted it for royal approval, and I hate
to tell you, but it still happens more that way today than most of
us would like to think.

The Statute of Anne gave The Stationers incredible power that they
did NOT have before then, the ONLY thing it gave the people was an
opportunity AFTER the first 14 years, and ONLY if the authors were
still alive. . .their own "copyright" was worthless if they died--
and also worthless if the material went out of print, which was in
fact the case for the vast majory of works, so there was not quite
anything for the average author after the first 14 years. . . .

You really must read up on this. . . .