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Copyrighting history all started with President James Madison, on August 18, 1787. He submitted a provision protecting an author’s work from being copied word for word (plagiarism). This provision became a law known as the copyright law but how did this come about?
On August 18, 1787, President Madison submitted a provision to the writers of the Constitution to protect literary work for a period of time. The first time the law was enacted was three years later in May of 1790. The author’s work was submitted for registration, accepted and given protection for fourteen years. In the same year, The Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry was the first to register in the Pennsylvania’s District Court. At the end of the 1700’s copyrighting was protected under the Constitution and continually updated.
Copyright law not only covered literary works. Prints were added in 1802, music in 1831, dramatic works in 1865 and photographs in 1856. Works of art was later added in 1870. These additions made it possible for architects, composers, playwrights and artists to register their work under the copyright law.
Besides additions, a second revision in 1870, centralizing the register in the Library of Congress and indexing of all registered works began. The register now had a name: “Catalog of Copyright Entries.” It was published in book form for the first time in July 1891 and maintained by the Copyright Office.
The Copyright Office was created in February 1891 and a position specifically to support and develop copyright issues was also created called the Register of Copyrights. Copyright law was established with some foreign countries in 1897. Copyrighting was introduced nationally and now headed into the 20th Century.
The 20th Century was a great time for writers as well as the copyrighting history. As the world of the arts grew so did extensions and revisions to the law. Renewal terms of protection doubled from 14 to 28 years from the date the work was published. Other classifications were recognized and in 1912, motion pictures were not classified as photographs but given a place of their own under protected works. In the late 1940’s, the copyright law was written as Title 17 of the U.S. Code. This was a pivotal point in the history of copyrighting.
Additions to the law kept growing, recording and performing arts were classified under non-dramatic literary works in 1953. The Universal Copyright Convention held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955 was established and copyrighting was signed into universal law. In 1974, the United States was part of 1971 revision to this universal law. The law was rolling with the times by being modernized.
Terms of protection, once again, were increased to being protected during the life of the author and fifty years after the author’s death. This protection not only protected author’s work but also gave the works life after death. As the computer boom hit in the 1980’s, new revisions were made. Copyright law was amended to include computer programs. In the 1990’s, registration became an option and any works between 1964 and 1977 renewed automatically even if registration wasn’t made.
Revisions to the copyright law continue to be made so the all works by all artists can continue to thrive now and in the future.
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