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History of IPR and copyright
The History of IPR and Copyright is part of the weave of culture, commerce & society. Its threads pass over and under those of freedom of speech, democratic rights, censorship, legal rights, business, technology & knowledge .Sometimes a rich tapestry - sometimes a Gordian knot.
:: Royal Library at Alexandria
:: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Rome, 300AD
:: Judgement of Diarmaid, Ireland 6th century.
:: Dürer and the Pirates, Germany 1511.
:: 'Marchant of Venyce', England, 1598
:: Milton's wish. John Milton, 'Areopagitica', England, 1644
:: Statute of Anne, England 1710 Artists' copyright, England 1735.
:: The original "pirates" - Scotland/England 1700's
:: Copyright as "property", 1760's
:: Thomas Jefferson,USA,1813 and Benjamin Franklin
:: Tolstoy - heroes of copyright 12, Russia 1910.
:: The European tradition and Berne Convention, 1886.
:: Open rights 'movement' Stallman, Lessig, etc... 1980s onwards.....
:: Your voice Your rights - Podcasting, 2005.
Image: Professor Zebra and Baby Hippo reading the 'Marchant of Venyce' in their Library. They are reading the complete plays of Shakespeare: 40 miniature volumes published as a promotional extra - like a "Free CD or DVD" in a newspaper today - in the UK by Allied Newspapers (The Daily Mail) at various times between 1910 - 1930. Shakespeare often based his plays on older stories and plays; George Bernard Shaw (another playwrite) referred to Shakespere as "the immortal pilferer...". So was Shakespeare stealing and re-hashing others' ideas or was he developing them into something new and unique? Photo: Mateer, 2008.
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Royal Library at Alexandria: 3rd Century BCE
The Royal Library at Alexandria - Egypt, late 3rd century BCE (BC) - was the first major go at world domination in the knowledge stakes with a mission to collect everything not just from its own country Egypt but from all corners of the known world including Greece and as far east as India. Compare Google's mission, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful …”
The Great Library did more than collect, but also cared for the books, carried out textual analysis and translation and made directories and commentaries. It is also reputed to have carried out a number of tactics to gather books, including book or manuscript tolls for ships passing through Egyptian ports and borrowing books from Greek libraries - copying was permitted as part of the loan procedure - and then not returning them.
"The Great Library of Alexandria." by O. Von Corven a 19th century German engraving - a reconstruction based on (some) archaeological evidence. Google Image search indicates it is the most used image of the Royal Library. Wikipedia claim that it’s in the Public Domain. Britannica doesn't say anything. A blog has some more information on the source but then that file may be copied from a more recent book. Oh dear! where DO you get a reliable and usable image you can use in school? There are increasingly, good photographs/descriptions of the archaeological remains - some of which seem to indicate that Von Corven was not all wrong.
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"A speech made public is free": Rome, 4th Century
"Oratio publicata res libera est." = "a speech made public is free."
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (345-410) :: Who he?
:: ...and an echo across the centuries from today! Your voice, Your rights - Podcasting - great ideas of principle persist.
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of Saints and Sinners: Ireland, 6th century.
Saint Columba of Ireland and Iona, was, in a way of speaking, one of the first “file-sharers”. On visiting a monastery he would borrow a book and then get his own scribes to make copies and distribute them. He became notorious for the practice and one abbot on hearing St Columba was about to visit buried his library in an orchard rather than have it plagiarised. Finally, St Finian of Maigh Bhile, - Ireland was rich in Saints at this time - who had been Columba’s teacher and fearing for his prized Latin Psalter demanded its return along with the copy that Columba had made. Columba said he could have the original, but the copy was his own. St Finian objected and referred the matter to Diarmaid, the High King.
Amongst the laws of the then agricultural Ireland was one which stated that a calf, wherever it was found wandering, belonged to its mother and should be returned to her. Using this well-founded precedent the High King pronounced against Columba, “Le gach bó a buinín agus le gach leabhar a chóip” or “As to every Cow its Calf, so to every Book it’s Copy.”
The cow/calf metaphor is appropriate as at that time books were made of vellum - treated calf’s skin - not paper:
A copy of this entry from the ‘Judgements of Diarmaid’ - Ireland 6th century - is on display in the entrance to the World Intellectual Property Organisation WIPO.
:: The original copied Psalter or ‘The Cathach of Columba’ from the Royal Irish Society website.
:: An example of a recent reference to the story in the Irish Parliament. ‘Seanad Éireann - Volume 104 - 07 June, 1984. Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 1984: Second Stage.’ Irish Parliament 1984
:: Irish Copyright Licensing Agency
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... copyright risk assessment - 16th century style ...
In Venice and Germany in the 15/16th century a system of grants of licence was established for publishing - a system later used in England. However, pirates were happy to make copies, not just of books but of engravings as well, selling them on, in many cases to a wider, less well-off market. Here is the German renaissance artist Dürer warning those who would copy his wood cuts - not just at risk of losing their internet service - but at risk for their life and soul.
"Hold! You crafty ones, strangers to work, and pilferers of other men’s brains. Think not rashly to lay your thievish hands upon my works. Beware! Know you not that I have a grant from the most glorious Emperor Maximillian, that not one throughout the imperial dominion shall be allowed to print or sell fictitious imitations of these engravings? Listen! And bear in mind that if you do so, through spite or through covetousness, not only will your goods be confiscated, but your bodies also placed in mortal danger."
Albrecht Dürer, 1511
Article added 6th June 2010
:: Quote from William Patry's excellent blog on Copyright September, 2009. Read Patry on Dürer
:: 'Melancolia I' by Albrecht Dürer, 1514. Image from Wikipedia. Click on the image to see the larger 'preview' image in Wikipedia Commons, then click again to get the full resolution size - huge! Now use the scroll bars to explore the areas of the woodcut and wonder at how Dürer created the image - he drew it and a craftsman using a small chisel-like tool cut the lines into a wooden block and then a skilled printer made the paper prints - and how much work was put into making it. Now ponder how much work even a reasonable copiest would have to put in, in those distant, pre-digital days. If Melancolia is glumly meditating on the act of creation perhaps it's the impending durations of copyright that are having the effect, "You mean this goes on, like, for ever?"
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Early copyright: 'Marchant of Venyce', 1598
William Caxton established the first priniting press in Britain - in Westminister, London in 1476 - with Chaucer's 'Cantebury Tales' his first published book. Copyright developed out of the practices of printers and publishers as printing and book-making began to become more common. It was printers who owned the copyright or 'copie'. For instance, an early printing of a Shakespere play: on July 22nd 1598 a printer named Jason Roberts "entered for his copie - ie copyright - vnder the handes of bothe wardens, a booke of the Marchant of Venyce." Later in 1600 Roberts transferred the "copie" to a publisher Thomas Heyes, for whom he printed the first edition of "The most excellent Historie of the 'Merchant of Venice'.
About the image
There may only be one image made of Shakespere during his life; so we rely on depictions of him that copy and recreate his image from very little certain data. There are a small number of images that have been used again and again in engravings, paintings, sculpture, cartoons and, more recently, in films to create the iconic image we have of him.
This image is an engraving from a German book of 1905, which is a copy of the oldest painting of Shakespeare (or more likely a copy of a previous copy which may have been a copy...etc. etc...) . The original painting is in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London and was painted by John Taylor in about 1610 and is called the 'Chandos Portrait'. See a good quality image of the painted portrait which you can use for private study or request permissions for wider use at National Portrait Gallery website.
:: To see Chandos portrait of Shakespeare search The Image Collection for William Shakespeare - note spelling!
NB Copies of this image on websites - wherever they are located are not intened for use beyond UK 'fair dealing' without 'permission' from the copyright holder - in this case the NPG.
:: Caxton's 'Chaucer'.
:: Shakespeare's 'First Folio'
Article written in March 2008.
In the summer of 2009 the National Portrait Gallery threatened Wikipedia with legal action over numerous images that they had published and that had been systematically removed from the NPG website by a Wikipedia contributer. For more on the developments of what might become a landmark case concerning UK vs USA fair use/dealing see 'In the news - NPG vs Wikipedia' - here at Shapesoftime.
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Milton's 'Areopagitica', 1644
In the 'Areopagitica, A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England' John Milton set out a defence of the right to publish without censorship which became a landmark in the articulation of the case for "free speech". "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties"
In another essay, 'Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth’ written in 1660 Milton championed the need for universal knowledge in the British Isles in words which chime with our aspirations today to provide 'access' through broadband and internet to all people and llcommunities; "Spread more Knowledg and Civility (=civilisation), Yea, Religion, through all parts of the Land, by communicating the natural heat of Government and culture more distributively to all extreme parts, which now lie num and neglected.”
:: Text of 'Areopagitica' free from Project Guttenberg.
:: First page of Areopagitica from US Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Divisons
:: Milton's 400 anniversary
:: Paradise Lost - Christ's College Cambridge 'interactive' resource for studying Milton's Paradise Lost.
:: BBC Milton's life.
About the image
The image is from the first page of the 1644 edition of Areopagitica and was scanned in US Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division, USA. The Wikipedia article uses an "enhancement" of the original jpg which is in Wikipedia Commons. Have a look aat which is better and judge for yourself. It is a good example of how digital copying can change the look and feel of an image and the data it originally contained. Advice? go back to sources.
1 The "enhanced" png image
2 the original scanned jpg Image.
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'The Statute of Anne', 1710
The Statute of Anne of 1710 was the the first national copyright act in the world. It alluded to the individual moral rights of authors giving them rights over the printers for a limited period - 14 years.
The Statute began, "Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing... Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors... to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families:..."
The subtitle of the Act says, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned". The emphasis is on the general principle of "Learning for all" of which rights to copies are a particular exception. Today "learning has become reduced to "private study" and it is "learning" that is the "exception"; progress?
Note: The date is given either as 1709 when it was "enacted" or, more correctly, 1710 when it came into force.
:: Nice website with images and text of the 'Statute of Anne' and transcriptions.
Image. Guttenberg Project. The History of England, by David Hume Esq. Vol 3, by Tobias Smollet. written 1688. published 1860. permalink
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Kames 1773
In Scotland in the case Hinton v. Donaldson the Lords rejected by a vote of 11-to-1, the idea that author's (meaning publishers) had a perpetual copyright of their writings. It was followed a few months later by a similar judgement for England. See the next section 'The original Pirates'
Lord Kames was one of the Lords sitting in judgement and he said, "It is a rule in all laws, that the commerce of moveables ought to be free; and yet, according to the pursuer's doctrine, the property of moveables may be subjected to endless limitations and restrictions that hitherto have not been thought of, and would render the commerce of moveables extremely hazardous."
And then "In a word, I have no difficulty to maintain that a perpetual monopoly of books would prove more destructive to learning, and even to authors, than a second irruption of Goths and Vandals. "
:: Kames was also a philosopher and coined the idea of the "pursuit of happiness" which was taken up by Thomas Jefferson and written into the consitution of the USA. See Jeffereson's copy of Kame's book, 'Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion' 'in 1751.
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The original "pirates": 1700's
Who should have the rights to print and distribute books has been a thorny issue from the very beginning. Milton described the publishers as “monopolists” and “men who do not therefore labour in an honest profession to which learning is indebted.”
The term ‘pirates’ was used as early as 1603 - according to the OED - and in 1703 Daniel Defoe described how his satirical poem 'The True-Born Englishman' was "... Printed again and again, by Pyrates" However, Defoe was making a broader point; "Had I wrote it for the Gain (= profit)of the Press (= publishers), I should have been concern’d at its being Printed again and again, by Pyrates, as they call them, and Paragraph-Men: But would they but do it Justice, and print it True, according to the Copy, they are welcome to sell it for a Penny, if they please.
The pirating habit was taken up with vigour by the Scots, in raiding London booksellers and legging it back to Edinburgh and printing their own cheaper versions of the books taken.
In 1729 a bookseller called Millar, who had published a very popular book of poems called 'The Four Seasons' took another bookseller Taylor to court saying, You can't publish 'The Four Seasons'; it's my copyright!". Taylor said 'No! Tthe Queen Anne Act says copyright only lasts for 14 years and you're 14 are up! So I can!" The judge, Lord Mansfield, agreed with Millar, saying "copyright is perpetual." (meaning it exists forever). This implied that there could be no such thing as the public domain. However, ...
... in 1774 a Scot called Alexander Donaldson had Mansfield's judgement over-turned. Donaldson - a printer, publisher and bookseller - took the London monopolists to court and in a landmark ruling, based not on business but on the need for knowledge to be free and the Statute of Anne, won the right to print out of copyright texts - and confirmed that copyright could not be held in perpetuity. He was represented in court by his friend James Boswell and It was reported in the press as “Great rejoicing in Edinburgh upon victory over literary property: bonfires and illuminations.”
It was of course a 'little' more complicated than this summary describes ... but you can read the whole story as given by Lawrence Lessig in his book 'Free Culture' - you want Chapter 6.
:: It is available free, on-line under a CC licence (hooray!). 'Free Culture' digital version. (it's a pdf with 352 pages)
:: Or you can purchase it as a nice little book from Penguin. 'Free Culture' paper version. (costs about $27 new - hdbk)
:: Read the background on Lessig's 'Free Culture' website.
:: Oh! and BTW, there is no truth in the rumour that Professor Zebra designed the cover of Lessig's 'Free Culture' - it's just a stripes thing.
Article written October 2009. Updated with Defoe references from cited references in OED, Wikipedia and Digitalproductions, April 2010
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:: Read the original court proceedings here in Karl-Erik Tallmo's 'History of Copyright. Donaldson vs Beckett
:: Read James Boyle blog for the copyright notice for the image of 'The Seasons'. James Boyle is a 'copyleft activist' and author of 'The Public Domain', which is obtainable on-line with a CC licence: 'The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind"
:: e-book version of 'The Seasons' - free on Internet Archive; from an 1820 publication (good for on-screen reading - like a book - you can zoom to increase text size and flip the pages.)
:: Plain text version of 'The Seasons' - free on Internet Archive. (quick to download and good for working from: searching, copying, quotations and annotations.
:: However it is reliably reported that Donaldson's Hospital, set up when his son Thomas died in 1851 for "the education and care of poor and deaf children", has recently been used as a standin for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. See Alexander Donaldson
To see the A-COPYRIGHT advert in an original 1905-06 'New York Clipper' newspaper setting - a link from http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton an archive of public domain newspapers from New York State by Thomas Tryniski - what a great site - so much material! And read the notes on copyright (written to US rules).
This article assembled and written by Marshall Mateer, October 2009. Mansfield paragraph added February 2010.
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'A Copy-Rake's Progress': Hogarth and artists' copyright: 1735
The English painter William Hogarth was also a skilled engraver. He became fed up with other people making cheap, low-quality copies of his popular works - "pirating" them - using the new engraving processes that had been introduced that he persauded Parliament to pass the Engravers' Copyright Act in 1735. It followed the outlines of the Act of Anne and established an artist's copyright of 14 years. It was Crucial as it marked the first move from text and books to visual works.
Hogarth held back the publication of one of his most famous series, 'A Rake's Progress' until after the Act was in force and he sold copies of HIS engarvings by subscription in advance.
The Engarvers' Copyright Act began the process that has continued over time to develop and now include photography, film, sound, multimedia and VR.
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Hogarth was also concerned for the quality of the work - many of the pirated engravings were of very low quality. He published a phamplet, repeating Milton's challenge to the "... the Monopoly of the Rich..." meaning the publishers who exploited artists and engravers, many of whom struggled on very low wages. "The print sellers squeeze and screw. trick and abuse the reputations of such engravers - to raise their own fortune by devouring that of the Sculpture-Engravers". and being "copied without Consent of the proprietor, and therby preventing a scandalous and unjust Custom (hitherto practised with Impunity) of making and vending base Copies of original Prints, to the manifest Injury of the Author and the great Discouragement of the Arts of Painting and Engraving".
Today groups like FAC make similar points about music copyright. FAC? = Featured Artists Coalition
Hogarth's self-interest in copyright and Art was based on his wider concern to change society, grow the new economy, establish the new middle class and ethics of prudence and hard-work and to speak out against the ills of poverty and 'over-consumption' that seemed inevitably to accompany the growth of the great cities. He also established a guild for professional artists and a school, St Martin's Lane, Academy, for young artists.
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'A Rake's Progress' is the story of a young man made rich through inheritance who loses his money through fast living ("spend, spend,spend") and after debtor's prison ends up in Bedlam (the "mad house"). There are eight paintings telling the story.
The eight engravings were done a couple of years after the paintings and have some differences to them. Many of the scenes are reversed (what happens if you copy something and thing print from the copy). While the characters and the main action remain the same though there are some changes to the sub-plot details and the settings. It is also recorded that attempts were made to see and copy the paintings before the prints were published by 'pirates' seeking to make their cheaper copies in advance of Hogarth's publication - similar to the practice of design theft associated with, for instance, the fashion industry today or film theft through online and DVD copying and distribution in advance of film releases.
:: 'A Rake's Progress'. The original paintings are in the Soane Museum, London. 'A Rake's Progress'. The museum also has the Soane education website; the images are watermarked but OK for education use if you give the appropriate references and acknowledgements.
:: 'A Rake's Progress' - the engravings have been published by Wikipedia: 'A Rake's Progress': the engravings
:: Wikipedia: have a look at the copyright trail on the images of the paintings in Wikipedia. They originate from a commercially licenced CD given by its publishers to Wikipedia under a GNU licence. They are medium resolution - OK for identification and study of the narrative and compostion but not very good for studying the brushwork, painting method , colour or finer details. 'A Rake's Progress' image provenance Wikipedia
This article on Hogarth assembled, written and drawn by Marshall Mateer, November 2009
References:
:: 'Hogarth: His Art and His World', Jack Lindsay, Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1977. (... a book.. with paper pages ... )
:: 'Hogarth: A Life and A World', Jenny Uglow, Faber & Faber 1997. (... another book.. with more paper pages ... )
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Copyright is 'property' ... 1760's
The idea that copyright is a property may seem a little odd and odder still if we go along with the "... property is theft ... idea. The association of the idea in law developed in the 18th century in Britain and was then used in USA.
One of the principles from which copyright developed was the protection against the unauthorized publication of a manuscript as it was the product of intellectual labour and therefore considered the author's own property as much as the paper it was written on. Sir William Blackstone, an English jurist and writer on law, associated this protection with the law of occupancy, which involves personal labour and results in property, something peculiarly one’s own. The term 'property' comes form the Latin 'proprius' meaning one's own, special, particular, - something peculiarly one’s own.
:: Reference: Copyright Law and Practice by William F Patry,1994, 2000.
:: Image: Sir William Blackstone. How many steps involved in making the image your computer/device just copied? How many of them copyrights? 1) your computer 2) Wikipedia 3) A digital image from Wikipedia Commons of 4) a scan/photo (?) of 5) a mezzotint (a type of image-making from 6) a steel plate) by Thomas Hamilton after ('after' means 'copied from') 7) an oil painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds which was copied from the original guy 8) Sir William Blackstone in about 1770. Oh, and 10) if you save it to your harddrive, etc. ... and 11 repeating) if you share it ... etc. etc. See Wikipedia Commons, Sir William Blackstone.
This article assembled and written 15th June 2010
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Thomas Jefferson, 1813
Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the American Consitution, addressed the issue of ideas - intellectual property - in a letter written in 1813. "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it."
"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine: as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."
:: Letter to Isaac McPherson, 13th August 1813.
:: Thomas Jefferson, Library of Congress 2000 exhibition online
Image: Thomas Jefferson, third president of the US. Lithograph by Pendleton, 1828(?), from a painting by Stuart. Image: Library of Congress. permalink
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Balance for the people: Macaulay, 1842
In 1842 the English parliament debated the issue of copyright and durations. Seeking to reduce the publisher's copyright proposal while maintaining an income for writers Thomas Babington Macaulay spoke of "The principle of copyright...a tax on readers for the purposes of giving a bounty for writers" In the debate he sought to uphold the principle of balance without elongating the durations to the point where they were no longer connected to the writing and demonstarted how simply adding on years to the durations did nothing to promote or support good writing.
Today's issues - expressed yesterday
:: Well worth reading Macaulay's speeches in full at Eric Flint's excellent website
Macaulay? who he? English historian; wrote the classic 'A History of England'. He also wrote the poem about Horatius on the bridge which ends, "And how can man die better / Than facing fearful odds / For the ashes of his fathers / And the temples of his Gods?"
... and Copyright Extension Today? It seems to go on and on - not as Macaulay would have wanted.
:: the Sonny Bono Act; also called the Mickey Mouse Act as Disney Corporation was one of the leaders in pushing for extension.
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Can't ~ Kant ~ Can! the European tradition
While the English and Americans were busy relating copyright to property - ie intellectual labour and occupancy become property - the states of Europe took a very different turn.
In the common law tradition (e.g. USA and UK) IP can be described as being baed on “utilitarian” principals - the balance of incentives of private and public need - while the civil law tradition (e.g. Europe and much of the rest of the world) is based on a “natural-law” principal and an idea of “authorship” . Based on the ideas of the philospher Emmanuel Kant and emphasizing “a personal and indissoluble link between the author and his creation." In 1791 another philosopher, Fichte argued for the protection of expression rather than the ideas per se - the situation we now have with copyright.
One commentator also points up the differences between these traditions and how they also conceive of “knowledge” differently and concludes that “the natural law approach to copyright is more suitable to the…‘digital world’ than the utilitarian one.”
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Copyright worldwide: the Berne Convention, 1886
Instigated in 1886 in France, by amongst others, the novellist Victor Hugo, the Berne Convention and its amended versions and developments through to the present day has formed the core for global agreements on copyright.
UNESCO's Universal Copyright Convention of 1952 promoted mutual protection of copyright amongst national states and the use of the © mark alongside the copyright holders name and date. It was updated in the Paris Convention of 1971.
WIPO - the World Intellectual Property Organsiation - now lists 184 members. The regulations of the Berne Convention are incorporated into the World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement of 1995 and WIPO has a special IP project to support economic growth in developing countries.
:: Full text of the 'Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works'
Image. Victor Hugo; cropped from London Sterescopic Co photograph; Wikipedia.
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Heroes of Copyright, No 12: Tolstoy
The great Russian novelist Tolstoy and his wife Sofiya Andreevna had a tortuous wrangle over what should happen to Tolstoy's wealth and literary estate (his writings) after he died. She wanted to retain control of them, and thereby the profits, but Tolstoy himself, in keeping with his ideas on education and social reform, wanted to give them to 'the Russian people'. Although ill, Tolstoy eventually left his family estate at Yasnaya Polyana renouncing his title and wealth but died of pneumonia not far from his home at the train station of Astapovo on 20th November 1910 aged 82.
but... Read this short article about Tolstoy's last novel 'Resurrection' which was printed in many pirate versions which were inaccurate, often cut by the censor and sometimes even added love scenes to increase sales. The book written in 1899 was not finally published in an 'authroised' version until 1936.
:: The colour photograph of Tolstoy was taken by Prokudin-Gorsky in 1908 at Yasnaya Polyana using his own three-colour projection process. Read a detailed article about early colour photography and the Tolstoy potrait and how the reconstruction was made, etc. - all good stuff!
:: Stereoscopic Tolstoy ... 3-D photos of Tolstoy here - you'll need Anaglyph (red/cyan) glasses ( cyan? that's a bright turquoise-type blue ).
:: The Empire that was Russia; online exhibition of new versions of Prokudin-Gorsky photos.
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Archive film of Tolstoy. Great little black and white film from British Pathe archive showing Tolstoy and his wife walking in their garden (about 1908) edited together with film shot in 1935 showing the rooms in the house and his simple grave. Narration and music make a nice mini-documentary. In the Footsteps of Tolstoi. Also 1948 silent clips of Tolstoy's sister, Tatiana, with some of his books, letters and photographs, Countess Tolstoy in Rome These are direct links to play the films on the Pathe wesbite
:: About Tolstoy - Wikipedia version of life and works is a bit, well bitty.
:: Feature Film The story of Tolstoy's relationship with his wife is the central theme of the film 'The Last Station' (2009). Tolstoy is shown caught between his wife, Sofya, ("Keep it in the family!") and his 'disciple' Chertkov ("Give it to the people!"). It also shows how Tolstoy was a 'celebrity' and subject to the pressures of the media of his day - journalists and photographers.
:: Photo Gallery Tolstoy Studies Journal has an online Image Library with photographs of Tolstoy throughout his life and, in the sprit of Tolstoy himself, makes them free for us to use. How is this possible? Because Russia did not sign international copyright agreements until after 1960 when the book these photographs are taken from was published in Russia. There is also a vast filmography; all good stuff!
Photos: Tolstoy Studies Journal and British Pathe Film Archive, schools licence.
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IPR and copyright in the UK: 1842, 1911, 1956 & 1988.
The Act of 1842 ensured authors' rights to a work once published: the work remained in copyright for 42 years or 7 years until after the author's death whichever was the longer, and then it passed into the public domain. The Act of 1911 included an exception to allow students to make copies for study. In 1956 a new Act was passed which extended the period to 50 years, included new media such as broadcasting and brought the UK into line with the Berne convention and the Universal Copyright Convention. The '56 Act extended the duration to 50 years from an author's death or 100 years from the time it was made. The 1988 Act - often referred to by its initials The CPDA - radically rewrote the Act into the one we work with today and established the basic duration as 70 years.
:: Intellectual Property Office website.
:: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
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1960's: pop and poetry pirates and photocopying
The Pop Pirates of the 1960s used off-mainland locations - often boats like Caroline - to avoid licensing requirements and broadcast pop music across the UK, Ireland and parts of Northern Europe. They did much to develop youth audiences and markets 'forcing' the BBC to alter its style and scheduling.
:: Guardian article
:: Wikipedia article on,Radio Caroline
:: Wikipedia article on Pirate Radio in Europe
:: 'The Boat that Rocked' resources on the 2009 feature film from Film Education.
Briggflatts and poetry pirates.
The introduction of photocopying services in the 1960's did a great deal to encourage 'alternative' publishing in the arts, schools and amongst local and subject communities. The Northumbrian poet, Basil Bunting, recorded his concerns for his poem 'Briggflats'; "the inaccurate copies floating about ... one copying down another's errors and so on ... it' possible some pirate might print one of these garbled copies..." 'Briggflats' which was appearing in pirate copies.'Briggflats' is Bunting's great poem of lost love and continuing culture finally published 1965.
:: Quotes above from the Bloodaxe 2009 edition of 'Briggflats' with essays and notes and a DVD with documnetary. See Briggflatts Bloodaxe (with links to Amazon and two audio clips)
:: Sound and Text extracts on Poetry Archive - Briggflatts
:: Wikipedia article on Bsil Bunting
:: Listen to full reading by Bunting made in 1963 by the Slought Foundation
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"Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.”
Today, not only can everyone* own a press - a pc/mac, laptop or m’fone - but everyone has access to a publishing system capable of instant world-wide distribution - the Internet.
The quote is from H.L. Mencken. Who he?
* everyone = lots of people, but not all - and in a large number of countries not even that many.
Image. Detail of Map of the Internet by Barratt Lyon in his Opte project. Image Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Matt Britt took some of the Opte images and using the SA permissions of the Creative Commons licence enhanced them using different rendering techniques. See an example at Wikipedia Commons - internet map.
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Free Licences
With the coming of digital technologies people began to find appropriate ways to share and protect their work. While some sought to privilege protection in their thinking others were concerned with sharing ideas and information and in creating what they saw as a more open society through the exploitation of digital technologies and the use of the internet. "Open" of course often means something different to different people and was often associated with other terms such as "source", "free" and "democratic". In this context, as the GNUFL defines it Free means free as in air...not as is beer. Some references:
:: Richard Stallman - computer code - Free Software Foundation and GNU licences
:: Lawrence Lessig - Creative Commons (CC) - "some rights reserved"
:: Creative Archive Licence Group - a CC derived licence - "find it, rip it, mix it, share it"
:: Free our Data - UK campaign to access public data by Guardian newspaper.
:: Open Knowledge Foundation - what it says on the tin; how would you define 'open knowledge'?
:: Open Rights Group - organisation concerned with "digital civil rights in UK".
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Your voice; your rights: podcasting in 2005.
"Your right to podcast your own voice speaking your own words cannot be licensed and should be a freedom for all in perpetuity."
UK Podcasting Association (UKPA): founding statement, March 2006
:: UKPA website
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Benjamin Franklin
And in these times of surveillance cameras: "He who would put security before liberty deserves neither."
Benjamin Franklin.
:: See WikiQuote for derivation and versions of Franklin's oft-quoted maxim.
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More stuff ...
:: Copyright Timeline - detailed timeline of copyright related events - simple text and scroll.
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About this page
Most of the information gathered on this page is in the public domain; it's either historical facts or short quotations, mostly taken from out-of-copyright or public texts. There is some original expression in how the linking text is written and in how the text and images are selected, headlined and arranged. A few of the images are my copyright though most of the images are taken from sources, as far as can be ascertained after reasonable endeavours, permitting their use - except, of course, for the original image of Professor Zebra! Sources for the images and quotes have been given and links back to the sources provided.
In some cases - for instance, Wikipedia Commons - the publisher has in turn got it's images from another source. Wikipedia details the history and gives the original source for all it's images; which may lead you to other good sources for future work, such as the USA Library of Congress or - it may leave you in a quandry as it sometimes has caveats for use in other countries..
If you want to use the images or quotations it is best to go back to source and see the image or quote in it's original context, get further information, check the references and links and use the best possible quality image. If you are publishing beyond your classroom or school then the priority of this care and attention increases. Should you want to use the page, it's layout and linking headings and text, then that is my copyright and I have licenced it for non-commercial use through a Creative Commons licence - I should like your acknowledgement and a link back to this page - http://www.shapesoftime.net/pages/viewpage.asp?uniqid=12760 - if you do. If you want to make "commercial use" of the material that is mine please contact me. Thank you.
History of IPR and copyright by Marshall Mateer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
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Acknowledgements
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Shapes of Time
Copyright - Copyleft
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