The US: Laying Down the Law & Mastering Multimedia Masterpieces

1788 A.D.: Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution states: “The Congress shall have Power . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

1790 A.D.: The first U.S. copyright act was entitled “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned.” Based somewhat on the Statute of Anne, the Act ensured a copyright duration of 14 years, with possible renewal for 14 additional years, if the author was still living at the end of the first 14 year period. The U.S. followed Donaldson v.

1834 A.D.: Wheaton v. Peters goes to the Supreme Court. In a reiteration of Donaldson v. Beckett, the Court held that there is no common law copyright, only the right given by statute.

1853 A.D.: Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, sued a German Publisher called Die Freie Presse. The publisher translated the book into German and sold it in the United States without Stowe's permission. She lost the case. Federal Circuit Court Judge, Robert Grier, ruled that "a translation may, in loose phraseology, be called a transcript or copy of her thoughts or conceptions, but in no correct sense can it be called a copy of her book."

1867 A.D.: Charles Dickens lobbied the American Congress to recognize the copyright of British authors, to no avail. American publishers were reprinting their works without permission, and neglecting to pay royalties.

1870 A.D.: The administration of copyright registrations moved into the control of the Library of Congress Copyright Office.

1884 A.D.: The Supreme Court ruled that photographs can be copyrighted.

1906 A.D.: Mark Twain spoke to a Congressional committee, and urged them to extend copyright to the term of the author's life plus 50 years.

1909 A.D.: The Copyright Act was revised to expand coverage on types of authorship; including literary, dramatic and musical works.

1971 A.D.: Congress decided that musical recordings, not just the compositions, should be covered by copyright. (PBS)

1976 A.D.: The Copyright Act of 1976 set the duration of copyright coverage to include the life of the author, plus fifty years. Originally, the act was to limit the duration period at 50 years, but, the U.S. had to agree to the longer period in order to get international protection of U.S. copyrights.

1988 A.D.: The United States agreed to the terms of the 1886 Berne Convention, which promotes international standards in copyright protection. One of the resulting changes was the elimination of copyright notice for copyright protection. Today, nearly all private creations are copyrighted and protected, whether or not it was registered with the Copyright Office or carries a copyright notice.

1998 A.D.: President Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which addresses intellectual property on the Internet.

1998 A.D.: Congress voted unanimously to extend copyright protection by 20 extra years. Most famously, the move keeps Disney's early cartoons, including Mickey Mouse, from passing into public domain.

2000 A.D.: Napster, an online music sharing site, is shut down for helping users share music, free of charge, and without paying royalties. In the aftermath, Napster is sold, and restyled as a for-profit music download site.

2003 A.D.: After hearing a challenge to the 1998 Copyright Extension Act, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law.

2007 A.D.: The Library Copyright Alliance (a consortium that consists of the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association) sends a letter about misleading copyright notices to the Federal Trade Commission. The letter states, "Patrons are confused by the clear contradiction between this copyright warning, which states that certain copies are permitted, and the warnings contained in some books, which state that no copies are permitted without the copyright owner’s express permission."

2008 A.D.: Harvard University launches plans to publish scholarly work on an open access website in order to aid the dissemination of research and ideas. Authors will retain their copyright.

What’s next? Check out the Copyright/Library news ticker at the bottom of this site, as well as the links on the right.