Copyright History. Part 3: Monopoly dies ... and reborn

Original author: Rickard Falkvinge
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To be continued. The first part is Black Death . The second part is Bloody Mary .

After the Bloody Mary introduced a monopoly on copying books, providing the authorities with the possibility of censorship, neither the booksellers, nor the crown felt the desire to change anything. The idyll lasted 138 years.

The monopoly was established by Mary I in 1557 as a censorship mechanism to prevent the spread and discussion of Protestant literature. Her successor, Elizabeth I, took pleasure in using this monopoly to prevent the spread and discussion of Catholic literature.

Throughout the 17th century, parliament tried to gradually take control of censorship from the monarchs. In 1641, the parliament dismissed a court in which cases of copyright infringement, the so-called Star Chamber , were usually heard . As a result, copyright infringement has become a de facto unpunished crime, just like in Sweden today crossing the street in the wrong place. Technically, this is an offense, but in fact no one will judge and punish him. As a result, creative activity in Britain literally soared into the stratosphere.

Unfortunately, the parliament did not want to achieve this at all.

In 1643, the copyright monopoly was restored, and in an even more rigorous form than before. Now, mandatory pre-registration of the author, printing house and publisher with the London bookselling company was required, a license was required before any publication work began, representatives of the Bookselling company were allowed to seize, burn and destroy unlicensed books and equipment. Arrests and harsh sentences were imposed for all copyright infringers.

In 1688, the Glorious Revolution took place , as a result of which many people who were affected by the monopoly and were not eager to support it appeared in parliament. In 1695, it was decided to abolish the monopoly.

Thus, from 1695, copyright ceased to operate. And again, a sharp creative take-off occurred - historians claim that during these years many documents were written, which later inspired the founding fathers to create the United States of America.

Naturally, the London bookselling company was unhappy with the loss of such an advantageous monopoly position. The booksellers even staged a rally on the steps of parliament demanding that the monopoly be returned.

Notice! Not the authors, but the printers and publishers asked for a monopoly. It never occurred to anyone to say that they wouldn’t write anything without copyright. It was about the fact that without him they would not print, but that was a completely different matter.

The parliament, which had just abolished censorship, was not interested in immediately restoring it with the possibility of centralized control, and therefore abuse. Then the booksellers proposed an option in which the author remains the "owner" of his work. In this they killed three birds with one stone at once. Firstly, the parliament could be sure that there would be no single censorship center. Secondly, publishers maintained a monopoly on the publication of books, since no one except them had the right to sell books by authors. Thirdly, the monopoly received solid legal grounds and protection.

The publishers' lobby has achieved its goal and the new law on monopoly was adopted in 1709 and entered into force on April 10, 1710. This was the first big victory for the copyright holders.

At this point in its history, copyright appears to us in its direct and natural form, as a monopoly with elements of censorship, which protects publishers above all, without taking into account the interests of artists and authors.

For a long time, book publishers burned, smashed, and confiscated printing presses and books, although the new law did not give them such a right. Abuses continued until 1765, when the case of Entik v. Carringtonset a precedent in which the principle “everything is permitted that is clearly not prohibited by law” was established, and citizens were guaranteed protection from unwarranted persecution by the authorities. The essence of the matter was that government officials broke into the house of writer and journalist John Entik, searched and confiscated “unlicensed” (that is, uncensored) materials criticizing the authorities.

This precedent, created during the citizen’s struggle against censorship (which at that time was inseparable from copyright) and the arbitrariness of the authorities, played a big role in the establishment of the common law system and civil liberties and formed the basis of the fourth amendment to the US Constitution.

Fourth: USA and Libraries


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