Editing Copyright (section)

=== National copyrights ===
{{See also|Statute of Anne |History of copyright law of the United States }}
[[File:Statute of anne.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Statute of Anne]] (the Copyright Act 1709) came into force in 1710.]]
Often seen as the first real copyright law, the 1709 British [[Statute of Anne]] gave authors and the publishers to whom they did chose to license their works, the right to publish the author's creations for a fixed period, after which the copyright expired.<ref name="Rethinking copyright: history, theory, language">{{Cite book |title=Rethinking copyright: history, theory, language |page=13 |last=Ronan |first=Deazley |isbn=978-1-84542-282-0 |year=2006 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMYXq9V1JBQC |via=Google Books }}</ref> It was "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or the Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned." 

The act also alluded to individual rights of the artist. It began:

{{quote|"Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and other Persons, have of late frequently taken the Liberty of Printing&nbsp;... Books, and other Writings, without the Consent of the Authors&nbsp;... to their very great Detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families:".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.copyrighthistory.com/anne.html |title=Statute of Anne |publisher=Copyrighthistory.com |access-date=8 June 2012 }}</ref>}}

A right to benefit financially from the work is articulated, and court rulings and legislation have recognized a right to control the work, such as ensuring that the integrity of it is preserved. An irrevocable right to be recognized as the work's creator appears in some countries' copyright laws.

The [[Copyright Clause]] of the United States, Constitution (1787) authorized copyright legislation: "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." That is, by guaranteeing them a period of time in which they alone could profit from their works, they would be enabled and encouraged to invest the time required to create them, and this would be good for society as a whole. A right to profit from the work has been the philosophical underpinning for much legislation extending the duration of copyright, to the life of the creator and beyond, to their heirs. Yet scholars like Lawrence Lessig have argued that copyright terms have been extended beyond the scope imagined by the Framers. Lessig refers to the Copyright Clause as the "Progress Clause" to emphasize the social dimension of intellectual property rights.<ref>Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (Penguin, 2004), 131ff.</ref>

The original length of copyright in the United States was 14&nbsp;years, and it had to be explicitly applied for. If the author wished, they could apply for a second 14‑year monopoly grant, but after that the work entered the [[public domain]], so it could be used and built upon by others.