Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Not DRM (there's nothing necessarily "digital" about registration, or payment for use), but another form of rights management. And something of a nightmare to administrate--I believe the music industry has private companies that manage the licensing, and the book industry has no company set to take over that job.
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Historically, the (English and Welsh, and later UK) publishing industry used to have something of such a body: the
Stationers' Register. It started out before the copyright laws came into being, and although it continued after they came along, I think it seemed to be far less important after the laws came into being. Interestingly, I think a fairly large number of books were published without being registered, and so having no formal protection, largely because of the costs of registrations. I
think that some publishers even varied their registration practice depending on the threats it was exposed to (and after the dangers of publishing unlicenced books faded).
(I'm sure a book/publishing historian will correct the doubtless many error in the above.)