Re: benefits of the public domain and limited copyright terms?

On 05/10/2000, Peter Groves <peter.groves[_at_]virgin.net> wrote:
>
> And indeed back in the mists of time in the United Kingdom common
> law copyright was indefinite before it was pre-empted by the
> Statute of Anne in ... take your pick between 1709 and 1710.

Common-law copyright was ONLY the right of first publication, period. You could keep your manuscript unpublished for an indefinite period of time, but once published, you could not prevent others from copying it. See Abrams, The Historic Foundation of American Copyright Law: Exploding the Myth of Common-Law Copyright, 29 Wayne L. Rev. 1119 (1993).

Tyler T. Ochoa
Associate Professor
Whittier Law School
<tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> Received on Thu May 11 2000 - 18:14:06 GMT