Statute of Anne
The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709 or the Copyright Act 1710, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties.
Prior to the statute's enactment in 1710, copying restrictions were authorised by the Licensing of the Press Act 1662. These restrictions were enforced by the Stationers' Company, a guild of printers given the exclusive power to print—and the responsibility to censor—literary works. The censorship administered under the 1662 act led to public protest; as the act had to be renewed at two-year intervals, authors and others sought to prevent its reauthorisation. Following the expiry of the 1662 act in 1694, Parliament refused to renew the act, ending the Stationers' monopoly and press restrictions.
Over the next 10 years the Stationers repeatedly advocated bills to re-authorise the old licensing system, but Parliament declined to enact them. Faced with this failure, the Stationers decided to emphasise the benefits of licensing to authors rather than publishers, and the Stationers succeeded in getting Parliament to consider a new bill. On 12 December 1709, the Stationers submitted yet another petition asking for legislation on the issue, and the House of Commons gave three MPs – Spencer Compton, Craven Peyton and Edward Wortley – permission to form a drafting committee. On 11 January 1710, Wortley introduced this bill, titling it A Bill for the Encouragement of Learning and for Securing the Property of Copies of Books to the rightful Owners thereof. This bill, which after substantial amendments was granted royal assent on 5 April 1710, became known as the Statute of Anne owing to its passage during the reign of Queen Anne. The new law prescribed a copyright term of 14 years, with a provision for renewal for a similar term, during which only the author and the printers to whom they chose to license their works could publish the author's creations. Following this, the work's copyright would expire, with the material falling into the public domain. Despite a period of instability known as the Battle of the Booksellers when the initial copyright terms under the statute began to expire, the statute remained in force until the Copyright Act 1842 replaced it.
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".
Background
With the introduction of the printing press to England by William Caxton in 1476, printed works became both more common and more economically important. As early as 1483, Richard III recognised the value of literary works by specifically exempting them from the government's protectionist legislation. Over the next fifty years, the government moved further towards economic regulation, abolishing the provision with the Printers and Binders Act 1533, which also banned the import of foreign works and empowered the Lord Chancellor to set maximum pricing for English books. This was followed by increasing degrees of censorship. A further proclamation of 1538, aiming to stop the spread of Lutheran doctrine, saw Henry VIII note that "sondry contentious and sinyster opiniones, have by wrong teachynge and naughtye bokes increaced and growen within this his realme of England", and declare that all authors and printers must allow the Privy Council or their agents to read and censor books before publication.Stationers' Company
This censorship peaked on 4 May 1557, when Mary I issued a royal warrant formally incorporating the Stationers' Company. The old method of censorship had been limited by the Second Statute of Repeal, and with Mary's increasing unpopularity the existing system was unable to cope with the number of critical works being printed. Instead, the royal warrant devolved this power to the company. This was done by decreeing that only the company's publishers could print and distribute books. Their Wardens were given the power to enter any printing premises, destroy illegal works and imprison anyone found manufacturing them. In this way the government "harnessed the self interest of the publishers to the yoke of royal incentive", guaranteeing that the company would follow the rules due to the economic monopoly it gave their members. With the abolition of the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission by the Long Parliament, the legal basis for this warrant was removed, but the Long Parliament chose to replace it with the Licensing Act 1662. This provided that the company would retain their original powers, and imposed additional restrictions on printing; King's Messengers were permitted to enter any home or business in search of illegal presses. The legislation required renewal every two years, and was regularly reapproved.This was not "copyright" as is normally understood; although there was a monopoly on the right to copy, this was available to publishers, not authors, and did not exist by default; it only applied to books which had been accepted and published by the company. A member of the company would register the book, and would then have a perpetual copyright over its printing, copying and publication, which could be leased, transferred to others or given to heirs upon the member's death. The only exception to this was that, if a person tried to make a copy of a copyrighted material and warned the owner of the copyright, and the owner did not reprint it within six months, then this person could continue with the printing, giving a "ratable" part of the profits to the owner of the copyright. This did not mean, though, a loss of copyright ownership, but a provision to allow other presses the right to reprint books that were unavailable. Authors themselves were not particularly respected until the 18th century, and were not permitted to be members of the company, playing no role in the development or use of its licences despite the company's sovereign authority to decide what was published. There is evidence that some authors were recognised by the Company itself to have the right to copy and the right to alter their works; these authors were uniformly the writers of uneconomical books who were underwriting their publication.
The company's monopoly, censorship and failure to protect authors made the system highly unpopular; John Milton wrote Areopagitica as a result of his experiences with the company, accusing Parliament of being deceived by "the fraud of some old patentees and monopolisers in the trade of bookselling". He was not the first writer to criticise the system, with John Locke writing a formal memorandum to the MP Edward Clarke in 1693 while the Licensing Act was being renewed, complaining that the existing system restricted the free exchange of ideas and education while providing an unfair monopoly for Company members. Academic Mark Rose attributes the efforts of Milton to promote the "bourgeois public sphere", along with the Glorious Revolution's alterations to the political system and the rise of public coffee houses, as the source of growing public unhappiness with the system. At the same time, this was a period in which clearly defined political parties were taking shape, and with the promise of regular elections, an environment where the public were of increasing importance to the political process. The result was a "developing public sphere provided the context that enabled the collapse of traditional press controls".
Lapse of the Licensing of the Press Act 1662
The Licensing of the Press Act 1662, which was continued by the Licensing of the Press Act 1664, the Licensing of the Press Act 1664, the Licensing of the Press Act 1665, the Administration of Intestates' Estate Act 1685 and the Estreats Act 1692, lapsed in 25 April 1694.In November 1694, a committee was appointed by the Commons to see what laws were "lately expired and expiring fit to be revived and continued". The Committee reported in January 1695, and suggested the renewal of the 1662 act; this was included in the "Continuation Bill", but rejected by the House of Commons on 11 February. When it reached the House of Lords, the Lords re-included the 1662 act, and returned the bill to the Commons. In response, a second committee was appointed – this one to produce a report indicating why the Commons disagreed with the inclusion of the Licensing Act, and chaired by Edward Clarke. This committee soon reported to the Commons, and Clarke was ordered to carry a message to the Lords requesting a conference over the 1662 act. On 18 April 1695, Clarke met with representatives of the Lords, and they agreed to allow the Continuation Bill to pass without the renewal of the act. With this, "the Lords' decision heralded an end to a relationship that had developed throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries between the State and the Company of Stationers", ending both nascent publishers' copyright and the existing system of censorship.
John Locke's close relationship with Clarke, along with the respect he commanded, is seen by academics as what led to this decision. Locke had spent the early 1690s campaigning against the statute, considering it "ridiculous" that the works of dead authors were held perpetually in copyright. In letters to Clarke he wrote of the absurdity of the existing system, complaining primarily about the unfairness of it to authors, and "he parallels between Locke's commentary and those reasons presented by the Commons to the Lords for refusing to renew the 1662 act are striking". He was assisted by a number of independent printers and booksellers, who opposed the monopolistic aspects of the act, and introduced a petition in February 1693 that the act prevented them from conducting their business. The "developing public sphere", along with the harm the existing system had caused to both major political parties, is also seen as a factor.
The failure to renew the Licensing Act led to confusion and both positive and negative outcomes; while the government no longer played a part in censoring publications, and the monopoly of the Company over printing was broken, there was uncertainty as to whether or not copyright was a binding legal concept without the legislation. Economic chaos also resulted; with the company now unable to enforce any monopoly, provincial towns began establishing printing presses, producing cheaper books than the London booksellers. The absence of the censorship provisions also opened Britain up as a market for internationally printed books, which were similarly cheaper than those British printers could produce.