Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Shakespeare didn't have copyright supporting him. Nor did Cervantes. Or any of the Greek plays, or Roman writings. Or the Analectics of Confucius (Kung-Fu-Tse). Or Marlowe, Omar, ect.... (And yes, the Library of Alexandria didn't have a copyright supporting it, either.)
Copyright is a Western Civilization invention, from the 1700's forward. Born by the printing press, dying by the computer chip. Selah.
|
The roots of copyright are a bit deeper than that, but certainly if you date our modern understanding of copyright from the Statute of Anne you are right.
Some of the statements I've read on this thread concerning copyright law "limiting" property rights are puzzling to me. Copyright law
establishes property rights. Any concept of limitation seems to me to presuppose the prior existence broader right to intellectual/artistic property, which never was the case.