"Preface" [2010] ELECD 494; in Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul (eds), "Global Copyright" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Global Copyright

Editor(s): Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848447660

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 3

Extract:

Preface
The first modern copyright law was enacted by the British Parliament in
1709 and came into force in 1710. This was the Statute of Anne: an

Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed
Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies. . .

The Act proved to be a catalyst and was soon followed by other copyright
legislation, the most influential being the French droit d'auteur decrees
passed in 1791 and 1793. For more than a century all efforts remained
focussed at a national level, but increasingly this territorial approach
became a problem.
Consequently, the International Literary and Artistic Association
(ALAI) was founded in Paris in 1878, with Victor Hugo as its honorary
chairman. Its main objective was to promote an international agreement
to protect authors of literary, scientific and artistic works. The associa-
tion achieved this with the adoption on 9 September 1886, of the Berne
Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. This was
the culmination of 175 years of modern copyright laws. The Convention
recognised and developed legal principles that were first forged under
national systems. In essence this is still the copyright system as we know
it.
The ALAI 2009 London Congress celebrated the tercentenary of
modern copyright law. It explored the various principles set out in the
Statute of Anne, such as the right of printing and publishing, the notion of
libraries as repositories of knowledge, the right of authors to control the
importation of books, and ...