Ten years ago, at the height of the dotcom boom, the futurists were predicting the demise of copyright. Those futurists can now skip to the final paragraph to see if they were right. Others might take a journey through the ages and wonder if this is anything new.

300 years ago, copyright was a radical concept, breaking through in the dawn of the Enlightenment. Our forefathers broke the old monopoly system and gave authors control of what they wrote. Queen Anne granted “the Author of any Book or Books…the sole Right and Liberty of Printing such Book and Books.” For the first time, authors had the essential bargaining chip, ownership of their work, when negotiating with the booksellers. They could trade ownership of their work in return for royalties, advances or other benefits.

It is interesting to speculate as to what predictions were made back in 1710…

• Read the full article at www.ppluk.com/1710