The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1710
April 10, 1710: The statute is considered a "watershed event in Anglo-American copyright
history ... transforming what had been the publishers' private law
copyright into a public law grant".
Under the statute, copyright was for the first time vested in authors
rather than publishers; it also included provisions for the public
interest, such as a legal deposit scheme. The Statute was an influence on copyright law in several other nations, including the United States, and even in the 21st century is "frequently invoked by modern judges and academics as embodying the utilitarian underpinnings of copyright law".
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