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Bracha, Oren --- "United States copyright, 1672–1909" [2016] ELECD 474; in Alexander, Isabella; Gómez-Arostegui, Tomás H. (eds), "Research Handbook on the History of Copyright Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 335

Book Title: Research Handbook on the History of Copyright Law

Editor(s): Alexander, Isabella; Gómez-Arostegui, Tomás H.

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783472390

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: United States copyright, 1672–1909

Author(s): Bracha, Oren

Number of pages: 37

Abstract/Description:

When the American Copyright system was created in 1790 it was shaped by pre-existing institutions. There were two main antecedents. The first and most important was the British copyright tradition. Although British copyright law never applied in the American colonies, Americans were familiar with the 1710 Statute of Anne and some of the surrounding case law. The second source of influence was various colonial and state practices that were themselves local versions of the British institutions. These included sporadic colonial and state legislative grants of ad hoc exclusive printing rights and general copyright statutes legislated by the states in the 1780s. These were the building blocks out of which United States copyright would be assembled in 1790. The American British colonies that became the US had no systematic copyright protection. The British copyright regime under the 1710 Statute of Anne did not apply in the colonies; there was no local statutory copyright; and no known attempt to claim copyright under the common law was made. This is not surprising in light of the economic, social and political conditions in the colonies. The first colonial printing press arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1638. The heavy involvement of Harvard College and the colony’s authorities in its operation entailed both official sponsorship and supervision. Other colonies, where the printing press arrived in later times during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, developed their own combinations of support and restriction.