Hollywood vs. Your PC

Copyright Chronicles

1709

Anne guards the books: Publishers are up in arms and hint at author strikes. The problem: fast (well, sort of) and loose replication and sale of books without proper compensation to the owner. To remedy that, England's Queen Anne accepts the first Parliamentary copyright law, the Statute of Anne. It gives copyright holders (defined as authors or another authority with proprietary rights to a written work) exclusive rights to distribution and copying for a period of 20 years.

1908

Play it again, Sam: Player pianos are all the rage, and publishers of player-piano rolls are making a killing selling these recordings of popular tunes--without paying composers a dime. (Sound familiar, Napster fans?) Sheet music publishers file suit, claiming copyright infringement. The Supreme Court rejects their claim, reasoning that the law doesn't cover player-piano rolls. The next year, Congress amends the law to include licensing fees for player-piano rolls, phonograph records, and public performances. Decades later, composers get over $500 million in royalties from recordings and performances of their music.

1984

Video saves the movie star: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Universal Studios' lawsuit against Sony, which had contended that Sony's VCRs allow rampant copyright infringement by giving ordinary Joes and Janes the ability to make copies of their own movies. The ruling upholds citizens' fair-use right to make home recordings, and it supports Sony's right to make and sell VCRs. (Sony's Betamax format loses the VCR war to rival VHS anyway.) Two decades later, while box office receipts add up to about $8.4 billion, video sales and rentals are a $16.9 billion market for the movie studios--not bad for the lawsuit's losers.