2.  Books were hand written  Books were very expensive  Books weren’t protected  Authors weren’t protected

3.  Printing Press was invented  Printed stuff became easily accessible  Not all of the public was literate

4.  England made a form of censorship  England required a copy of each book to be submitted  Books found hostile to the government were removed  Lasted until 1695

5.  British Parliament passed first “copyright  It established that authors owned their work  Once you bought a book you weren't restricted by copyright

6.  Connecticut passed a copyright statute  It was called “An Act for the Encouragement of Literature and Genius”.  Dr. Noah Webster advocated it

7.  James Madison suggested that the Constitution secured literary authors their copyrights for a limited time

8.  A federal bill was submitted to congress regarding copyrights

9.  Books, charts, and maps were protected for 14 years  They could be renewed for 14 more years  Registration was held in the US district Court that the author was at

10.  “The Philadelphia Spelling Book” was the first book to be copyrighted in America  It got registered in the US District Court of Pennsylvania

11.  The Copyright Act started to protect historical and other prints

12.  Extended copyrights to musical compositions  Extended the copyright to 28 years with a 14 year renewal

13.  Copyrights were extended to dramatic works

14.  Photographs and Photographic negatives started being protected by copyrights

15.  The copyright law was revised again  Art was protected under it  Deposit and registration was centralized in the Library of Congress  Authors started to be able to change or dramatize what they had a copyright on  Registrations started to be indexed

16.  The International Copyright Act became a Law  Authorized copyright relations with foreign countries

17.  The first video was deposited to be copyrighted  It was sent as a series of pictures instead of film

18.  President Grover Cleveland passed the Printing Act of 1895  It centralized Governmental printing  Stopped the copyrighting of any government document

19.  An act was passed to stop performances of copyrighted music that wasn’t authorized

20.  The copyright office split from the library of congress  The register of copyrights was appointed

21.  The copyright act was revised again  It was broadened into “all the writings of an author”  The renewal term was turned up to 28 years

22.  The Townsend Amendment of 1912 made videos a separate category; they were previously put in as pictures

23.  The US and certain Latin American nations noticed the other nation’s copyright acts

24.  Poetry, novels, and textbooks were added to the copyright act

25.  The US became a member of the Universal Copyright Convention

26.  The congress put in a series of nine acts that extended the term for which existing works could be renewed.

27.  Sound recordings were added to the copyright act

28.  The fourth revision of the copyright law was signed

29.  The provisions of the copyright law were set into action  The term of protection changed to the life of the author and 50 years after

30.  Computer software was added to the copyright law

31.  The US adhered to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works

32.  Architectural works were added to the copyright act

33.  Renewing a copyright became optional  Copyrights between 1964 and 1977 were automatically renewed

34.  Copyrights were extended to the authors life and 70 years after death

35.  President Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act  This implemented treaties made at the world intellectual property organization

36.  The TEACH act allowed copyrighted things made by accredited nonprofit educational institutions to be used in distance education

37.  To learn more go to http://www.copyright.gov/history http://www.copyright.gov/history