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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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copyright
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An exclusive right to reproduce or allow others to reproduce certain categories of intellectual material. This legal property (now belonging automatically to anyone who writes or draws anything, no matter how slight) has been gradually established over the centuries. From Tudor times printers were granted by the crown an exclusive licence to print and sell particular works.
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The position of authors was improved by an act of 1709 which allowed them sole rights over a new book for 14 years from its first publication; an act of 1842 extended this period to 42 years from the book's publication or seven years from the author's death, whichever was longer; and an act of 1911 introduced the principle prevailing today, by which an author's copyright (which may be sold or inherited in any work, in part or in whole) lasts a given period after his or her death. That period was 50 years until extended to 70 by a law effective from 1995. Copyright in engravings was secured in 1735, largely by the efforts of *Hogarth.
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Nowadays copyright extends not only to the traditional areas of art, literature, drama and music, but also to radio, film and television (inventions, however, are covered by the laws of *patent).
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