COPYRIGHT BASICS: FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DIGITAL AGE

10 Wake Forest Intell. Prop. L.J. 241

This year marks a momentous time in the history of copyright law; 2010 is the 300th anniversary of the British Statute of Anne, the first modern copyright law that influenced our own Congress to enact the first U.S. copyright law just three years after ratification of the Constitution. It is also the 100th anniversary of the effective date of the Copyright Act of 1909, the statute that immediately preceded the current Act. This is also a time when there is tremendous strain on copyright law brought about by the digital environment. In my opinion, the strain also highlights the fact that the United States has moved away from a principled approach to copyright and has instead focused on solving particular problems for individual copyright industries. Thus, the statute itself lacks both coherence and a theoretical underpinning that makes sense to ordinary people. This has resulted in greater tensions between the users of copyrighted works and the owners of copyrights in unprecedented new ways, further complicated by the advent of the digital age and the Internet. This article explores the history of copyright law, explains the basic principles of copyright law and copyright infringement, and identifies the copyright concerns manifested by the internet and digital media.