Category Archives: Reference

[Over the years a number of colleagues, and a couple of students, have asked me what I know about copyright. Here’s a post that gives a history of copyright as a concept, as well as its legal dimensions.]

“copyright: The exclusive right by statute to reproduce, publish, and sell works of literature, music, art, drama, choreographic work, motion pictures, and other audiovisual works and sound recordings. The first copyright act in England was that of 1709, subsequently subjected to various modifications and additions. In 1842, a new act was passed, granting copyright for forty-two years after publication or until seven years after the author’s death, whichever should be the longer period. This act was superseded by the copyright act of 1911, under which the period of protection was extended to fifty years after the death of the author, irrespective of date of publication. The act deals also with copyright in photographs, engravings, architectural designs, musical compositions, and phonograph records.

The first copyright act in the U.S. was enacted by the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts in 1783, following vigorous agitation by Noah Webster. The first national statute, passed in 1790, was modeled upon the then-existing British law. Additional acts were passed in 1846, 1856, 1859, 1865, and 1909. U.S. copyrights may be secured under a copyright act effective January 1, 1978, for a period of seventy-five years from publication or one hundred years from creation, whichever is shorter. The term for works created on or after January 1, 1978, lasts for the author’s life plus an additional fifty years. Under the law, all visually perceptible copies of a work were required to bear the symbol ©, the word copyright, or its abbreviation, the name of the owner of the copyright, and the date of publication. Copyright protection has been extended to original works of authorship fixed in any tangible means of expression, known now or later developed. The Copyright Act of 1989 brought U.S. practice into agreement with the Berne Convention, and a copyright notice is no longer necessary to secure protection.

Influenced by lobbyists for book manufacturers reluctant to extend U.S. copyright to books manufactured abroad, the U.S. did not sign the Berne International Copyright Convention, under the auspices of UNESCO, a certain confusion existed in the field of U.S. international copyright. The U.S., most other Western countries, the former Soviet Union, which signed in 1973, and many Asian countries have signed the Universal Copyright Convention, but a worldwide international copyright does not yet exist.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.