Thread: DRM = BAD
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Old 12-06-2007, 02:52 PM   #49
HarryT
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonkchapman View Post
They may have done more to spread it, but the Statute of Anne first gave authors ownership of their own works in Britain. Prior to that, the only avenue to publication was to sell all rights the printing monopoly. Everything afterward built on the premise that the creator held rights in the created work.
I'm not entirely sure how it worked, but in Shakespeare's time one could enter a record for a book into the "Stationer's Register" to assert ownership. It's the entry in that register which has, I believe, been important in dating many of S's plays. I believe that being registered gave an author certain rights, although it pre-dated the formal copyright law which appeared in the 1640s, some 20 years or so after S stopped writing.
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