The Statute of Anne

The Statute of Anne

The Statute of Anne dates all the way back from 1710. It was the first copyright act in the world. Its significance lies in the fact that it paved the road for copyright laws today. It introduced and formally recognized two important concepts: 1) actual ownership of published works by authors and 2) protection for published works.

Patent

A patent is essentially intellectual properly protected by the law. It's purpose is to encourage innovation as without protection for the inventor's product, he or her investment of time and money would be worthless as someone else could quickly redeem the product as theirs. For example, Thomas Edison is most commonly credited for the lightbulb but when he applied for a patent on his design, it was found Joseph Swan had applied for one a year prior. Thus, Edison was forced to recognized Swan's contribution and take him as a partner but he eventually bought Swan out and went on to find General Electric.

Essentially, any idea can be patented. The most outrageous example being the little boy who patented the procedure of swinging on a playground swing. If he wanted to, he could potentially demand payment from every child on a swing in playgrounds around America.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)

The signing of this act at the start of the 21st century made it illegal to circumvent copyright protection through the use of music/movie soft/hardwares like pioneers Kazaa or Napster. Record labels and movie studios argued that the use of these soft/hardwares would lead them to go out of business because people were getting their products for free. Additionally, this act is significant because it was one of the first laws to be enacted as a result of the internet. The internet is a unique space because it is governed by it's users. As such, governments are still unsure what to do with it (most recently seen with WikiLeaks). However, in the past couple of years it gave way to SOPA and PIPA.