• Authors' Rights
• Authors' Rights vs Copyright
• The Origins of Authors' Rights
• International Treaties
• The Digital Era

The Origins of Authors' Rights

The ideas that inspired the modern concept of author’s right can be traced back to Antiquity. Greek views on individuality are reminiscent of our recognition of the uniqueness of the creator and his work. Authors signing contracts with booksellers were seen in Rome, where the poet Martial complained about unauthorised recitation of his work.

However, it was not before the advent of modern age, when Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press allowed mass dissemination - and piracy - of creative works, that authors begun claiming the right on their intellectual work. One of the first writers to sell his rights was John Milton, who licensed his famous poem "Paradise Lost" in 1667. Unfortunately, the license seems to have earned him a mere ten pounds before his death in 1674!

The English Statute of Anne of 1710 is widely referred to as the first modern copyright law. However, its protection is limited to piracy of printed works.

Two historic events – the French and American Revolutions – ushered authors’ rights into its contemporary shape, based on two fundamental principles. On the one hand, it is an economically salable property right, granted for the first time by the U.S. Constitution of 1787. France and Germany, on the other hand, developed the idea of the author’s unique expression.

Inspired by the German philosopher Kant, according to whom a work of art cannot be separated from its author, the French playwright Beaumarchais started getting authors together to form the first authors’ society. In 1791 the French National Assembly passed the first law on authors’ rights.

Almost a century later, authors were granted international protection of their work. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was signed in 1886. Today, 163 countries adhere to this treaty.

Modern history was written in 1996, when WIPO’s Internet treaties geared up authors’ rights to the 21st century. In 2002, both treaties entered into effect, having been ratified by the minimum of 30 countries.