Assignment #5

While originally copyright was applied only to books, in today's world the effects of copyright can be seen everywhere, from movies to material found on the internet. With more and more material falling under copyright, the laws pertaining to protecting someones original work have become very expansive and much disputed.

The first copyright law put in place in England was called the Statute of Anne of 1709. It was largely created because of the leap in copies being made of books with the invention of the printing press. In U.S. history, copyright was originally going to be under the States jurisdiction in the Articles of Confederation, but with the Declaration of Independence a copyright clause was added to promote creativity in science and the arts. The Copyright Act of 1790 allowed works to be copyrighted for 14 years, with and additional 14 years if the author applied for it. Over the years the time and types of materials has been expanded.

Adelphi Charter, a group that advocates a more free flow of information sums up the long standing argument against some copyright laws.

"While exclusive rights have been adapted and harmonized to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy, copyright’s exceptions are radically out of line with the needs of the modern information society. The lack of harmonisation of exceptions hinders the circulation of knowledge based goods and services across Europe. The lack of flexibility within the current European exceptions regime also prevents us from adapting to a constantly changing technological environment."

Another problem that many historians are facing because of copyright laws is how and when works can be desplayed or published because the copyright owner can not be determined. As with the case of the trove of historic jazz recordings that cannot be used because the issues arising from copyright many other works are held in sort of a limbo.