300 years of British copyright

Saskia Walzel

Policy Advocate - Consumer Focus

From the “right to copy” to the “right to control all use”?• “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the

Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned.” title, Statute of Anne 1709– A trade-regulation to promote the production of books and to curtail the

monopoly of publishers...

• “Copyright is a property right which subsists in accordance with this Part in the following descriptions of work...” Section 1 (1), Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 – A monopoly on production, distribution and adaptation of literary, dramatic,

musical and artistic works, sound recordings, films and broadcasts. A property right and regulation of all uses...

300 years of (British) copyright law

• Copyright law has a short history in most countries – copyright law was exported by European colonial powers

• British copyright law has had a profound influence on copyright law in other countries

• Esp. the Statute of Anne 1709 (US) and the Copyright Act 1911 (Commonwealth countries)

Historic perspective on copyright law

• Creativity and the production of creative works predates copyright law

• Copyright law was overwhelmingly promoted by “copyright industries”, not creators or authors, even though historically copyright industries have emphasised that the conflict is between consumers and creators

• Copyright originates in attempts to control and censor printers, 18th Century, and copyright law continues to be at the centre of debates on the right to freedom of expression

Parallels between British copyright law and copyright law elsewhere• The scope of copyright has been aggressively extended in the

past 300 years• types of works covered and uses included in exclusive

rights granted by copyright

• Copyright law regulates the production, distribution and adaptation of creative works . This function conflicts with a properly right approach to copyright law

• Despite copyright law having extended to cover new technologies that allow for the production, distribution and adaptation of creative works, copyright law is fundamentally wed to the production of books

But this is not a story with a happy ending • British copyright law, perhaps more than any other copyright

law, has developed into a quasi property right which allows copyright owners to control all uses.

• British copyright law is one of the worst in the word, due to little flexibility and lack of exceptions that express consumers’ fair use rights

• British copyright law provides little rights to original creators or authors

• On mass copyright infringement by consumers through digital technologies• The end of “copyright”....?

Timeline

• Control of print, censorship and the Stationers Company• Statute of Anne• Battle of the booksellers / donaldson v beckett• 19th century extension of copyright• Copyright act 1911• Copyright act 1956• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

From censorship to the Statute of Anne to copyright• Control of print, censorship and the Stationers Company• Statute of Anne

• An act for the encouragement of learning• Only covered books• Copyright term 14 years from publication, renewable for

another 14 years of the author was alive

• During the 18th Century copyright was extended in terms of the works it covered, the time it lasted and the uses that were made exclusive rights conferred by copyright law.

• The 1911 Act consolidated all copyright statutes and major case law, including “fair dealing”

Copyright law and books

• Copyright law first applied to books only, but has subsequently been applied to all types of works and creative production

• Gutenberg and the start of printed books • The “right to copy”• “Author” and “publisher”

Problems:• Not every work and creative production process has an “author”

or “publisher”• Copyright for books is not appropriate for traditional forms of

cultural production• Digital technologies allow us to copy everyday

Copyright v the people

• Consumers are now the biggest threat to the “copyright industries”, and so are artists

• Digital technologies allows all users to produce, distribute and adapt copyrighted works on an unprecedented scale

• In a property right based approach copyright law is not allowed to evolve with technology, and may be used to regulate the technology used for the production, distribution and adaptation of creative works

• Similarly, creative production processes are expected to conform to the boundaries of copyright law, rather than copyright law evolving around the creative production processes that develop over time

Saskia WalzelPolicy Advocate - Consumer Focussaskia.walzel@consumerfocus.org.uk