Editing Statute of Anne (section)

===Battle of the Booksellers===
[[File:James Thomson (Scottish poet).jpg|thumb|left|[[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]], whose work ''[[The Seasons (Thomson poem)|The Seasons]]'' was the subject of ''[[Millar v Taylor]]'']]
When the copyrights granted to works published before the statute began to expire in 1731, the Stationers' Company and their publishers again began to fight to preserve the status quo. Their first port of call was Parliament, where they lobbied for new legislation to extend the length of copyright, and when this failed, they turned to the courts. Their principal argument was that copyright had not been created by the Statute of Anne; it existed beforehand, in the common law, and was perpetual. As such, even though the statute provided for a limited term, all works remained in copyright under the common law regardless of when statutory copyright expired.{{sfn|Patterson|1965|p=245}} Starting in 1743, this began a thirty-year campaign known as the "Battle of the Booksellers".{{sfn|Deazley|2006|p=14}} They first tried going to the [[Court of Chancery]] and applying for injunctions prohibiting other publishers from printing their works, and this was initially successful. A series of legal setbacks over the next few years, however, left the law ambiguous.{{sfn|Robinson|1991|p=71}}

The first major action taken to clarify the situation was ''[[Millar v Taylor]]''.<ref>(1768) 4 Burr 2303</ref> [[Andrew Millar]], a British publisher, purchased the rights to [[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]]'s ''[[The Seasons (Thomson poem)|The Seasons]]'' in 1729, and when the copyright term expired, a competing publisher named Robert Taylor began issuing his own reprints of the work. Millar sued, and went to the Court of King's Bench to obtain an injunction and advocate perpetual copyright at common law.{{sfn|Seville|2010|p=822}} The jury found that the facts submitted by Millar were accurate, and asked the judges to clarify whether [[common law copyright]] existed. The first arguments were delivered on 30 June 1767, with John Dunning representing Millar and Edward Thurlow representing Taylor. A second set of arguments were submitted for Millar by [[William Blackstone]] on 7 June, and judgment was given on 20 April 1769. The final decision, written by [[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Mansfield]] and endorsed by [[Richard Aston|Aston]] and Willes JJ, confirmed that there existed copyright at common law that turned "upon Principles before and independent" of the Statute of Anne, something justified because it was right "that an Author should reap the pecuniary Profits of his own Ingenuity and Labour". In other words, regardless of the statute, there existed a perpetual copyright under the common law.{{sfn|Deazley|2006|p=15}} [[Joseph Yates (judge)|Yates]] J dissented, on the grounds that the focus on the author obscured the effect this decision would have on "the rest of mankind", which he felt would be to create a virtual monopoly, something that would harm the public and should certainly not be considered "an encouragement of the propagation of learning".{{sfn|Deazley|2004|p=178}}

Although this decision was a boon to the Stationers, it was short-lived. Following ''Millar'', the right to print ''The Seasons'' was sold to a coalition of publishers including Thomas Becket. Two Scottish printers, [[Alexander Donaldson (bookseller)|Alexander]] and John Donaldson, began publishing an unlicensed edition, and Becket successfully obtained an injunction to stop them. This decision was appealed in ''[[Donaldson v Beckett]]'',<ref>1 Eng. Rep. 837</ref> and eventually went to the [[Judicial Committee of the House of Lords|House of Lords]].{{sfn|Abrams|1985|p=1156}} After consulting with the judges of the [[Court of King's Bench (England)|King's Bench]], [[Court of Common Pleas (England)|Common Pleas]] and [[Exchequer of Pleas]], the Lords concluded that copyright was not perpetual, and that the term permitted by the Statute of Anne was the maximum length of legal protection for publishers and authors alike.{{sfn|Abrams|1985|p=1157}}