History of copyright and its implications

Copyright is derived from a 16th-century English censorship law, later transformed by publishers and the English Parliament into a monopoly distribution right. This history differs in significant ways from our modern conception of copyright, which holds that it was invented to give writers and artists an economic basis for creativity. The actual story is somewhat more complex than that, and understanding it is increasingly important today, as the economics of distribution are undergoing radical change thanks to the Internet.