“Before there was the Statute of Anne (1709 or 1710, choose your calendar), there was a series of so-called licensing acts, dating from the 16th century and running until 1695, which regulated (censored?) printing and publishing in England in the interests of the Crown and the religious authorities. Law school curricula on copyright address the licensing acts briefly, if at all. On the whole, only academic types really pay any attention to them, mainly over the extent to which they created a hermetically sealed system of regulation and control …” (more)
[Neil Wilkof, The IPKat, 24 September]
First posted 2020-09-24 18:50:28
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