CopyrightHistory.Org - Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900)
Submitted by kingrat on Mon, 2008-02-25 02:50.Interested in knowing how copyright evolved? This website provides a digital resource relating to the history of copyright in five jurisdictions (France, Germany, Italy, the UK and US) for the period up to 1900. It will include the 50 most important documents from France, Germany and the UK, and the 20 most important from Venice and the United States.
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Copyright is an artificial construct, something that was a necessity in order for old forms of market economy to work. I wish copyright is dead and buried soon, it's outlived its usefulness. File sharing is a fine example of something that shows that things are changing and the changes cannot be stopped, or prevented, which scares the crap out of the RIAA and the MPAA. The days when you could earn a living from controlling who multiplied your code, text or song are over.
All property rights are an artificial construct. That doesn't mean they don't still have some use.
Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/
The only good use of copyright is to protect free software (GNU/FSF). The idea that you can control who knows and says what is ridiculous and can only be considered reasonable if we're talking state secrets. Copyright the way it's abused today is in conflict with the principles of a free society.