4. History of Copyright Changes 1710–2013

Changes to the law of Copyright The Act, or Statute of Anne passed in 1710 was heralded as an ‘Act for the Encouragement of learned Men to compose and write useful Books’. It had replaced a system in which the Stationers’ Company had a virtual monopoly on legal printing by issuing licences to printers that were designed to keep a tight control of the press. Early pressure for the right to prevent the copying of works came from printers and publishers and not writers, who had no ways of organi..