In 1710, Parliament passed the Statute of Anne, the first statutory copyright law. It gave the exclusive right to copy the manuscript of a book for 14 years. It was given to the author and the author’s chosen printer. So it was an author’s right, in that the author got to choose whoever they wanted to publish their book, but it did not get into effect until the book was published. So de facto it was a monopoly right for the publisher.
If still alive at the end of those 14 years, the author could get a renewal for another 14 years. If the author had died, the copyright lapsed, and it always lapsed after 28 years.
Copyright was obtained through registration with the stationer’s company and deposit of the published book in the Bodleian Library. If a book hadn’t been published, if it was just an unpublished manuscript, it did not get copyright protection.
So what was happening after 28 years? The House of Lords decided that the 28-year statutory term allowed by the Statute of Ann was all the rights. Once it had expired, the books went into the public domain. Neither the author nor the publisher retained any rights over their books after the term of copyright had expired.
The House of Lords essentially created the public domain, the idea that there would be creative works, works of literature and knowledge not owned by anyone after some period.
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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.
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