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Doc of the Day: The Copyright Act of 1790
05/31/10
On May 31, 1790—shortly after the U.S. Constitution was adopted—Congress enacted the first intellectual property law in the nation’s history. The Copyright Act of 1790 allowed the creators of books, maps, and charts to protect their work for a term of 14 years, with the privilege of renewal for a second term of 14 years. The first copyrighted work, The Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry, was registered ten days later.
Copyright, which literally means “right to copy,” is a form of legal protection that provides exclusive rights of reproduction to the creators of original works of authorship, including books, movies, plays, music, artwork, photographs, maps, sound recordings, and computer programs. Such works are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office and, if first published in 1978 or later, are protected for the life of the author plus 70 years. Since the Copyright Office became a service unit within the Library of Congress in 1870, it has registered more than 33 million claims to copyright.
Read the COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1790