The First Congress implemented the copyright provision of the US Constitution in 1790.
The Copyright Act of 1790, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the Authors and Proprietors of Such Copies, was modeled on the Statute of Anne (1710).
It granted American authors the right to print, re-pri.
The five remaining States granted copyright for single terms of fourteen, twenty and twenty one years, with no right of renewal. Prior to the passage of the United States Constitution, several states passed their own copyright laws between 1783 and 1787, the first being Connecticut.
The term of protection of copyrighted works was extended to 28 years with the possibility of a 14-year extension.
Congress claimed that it extended the term in order to give American authors the same protection as those in Europe.
The extension applied both to future works and those current works whose copyright had not expired.
The copyright law of the United States has a long and complicated history, dating back to colonial times.
It was established as federal law with the Copyright Act of 1790.
This act was updated many times, including:
This was passed into law by an act in May 1861, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities.
A later amendment, in April 1863, provided that any copyright registered in the United States before secession, and held by a current Confederate citizen or resident, was legally valid within the Confederacy.
President Clinton signed the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) into law on October 28, 1998 (P.L. 105-304).
