Three hundred years ago the Statute of Anne came into force (1710). It was “an Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned”. The Statue of Anne was the first copyright statute in the Kingdom of Great Britain and it is considered the first act to directly protect the rights of authors. Although the Statute’s aim was to protect the rights of authors, the Statute of Anne was a result of a campaign by the Stationer’s Company that wanted to protect their business.

Before the Statute of Anne was enacted, the production and distribution of books was regulated by exercising control over printing presses and the works that were published. The Licensing Order of 1643 instituted pre-publication censorship and the Stationers’ Company was given the responsibility of acting as censor. In return the Company was given a monopoly of the printing trade. However, when the Licensing Order of 1643 lapsed, the Stationer’s Company began to lose the control they exercised over the book trade. The Company tried to persuade Parliament to reinstate the Licencing Acts, but without success. The Company did succeed in persuading Parliament to enact an “Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies [...]“, known as the Statute of Anne.

The Statute of Anne provided authors and proprietors of copies or manuscripts with the right to print and reprint copies of their works. If booksellers that were united in the Stationers’ Company were able to convince writers to assign their rights to them, then they would be able to reclaim some of their control over the book trade.

Some blogs (The 1709 Copyright Blog, Ius Mentis (Dutch)) celebrate the Statute of Anne as the first Copyright Statute granting rights to authors. However, the Statute can also be seen as the result of early copyright lobbying that was never in the interest of authors.

This was left as a comment to Intellectual monopoly turns 300, long past its prime and I felt it should get some front page coverage.

Related posts:

1. Intellectual monopoly turns 300, long past its prime
2. More DMCA, FOSS, Copyright craziness: FOSS devs can collect damages from license violators
3. Sixth Circuit court strikes down porn records statute

According to Giving USA’s latest report:

• 2007’s record $306.4 billion in charitable giving is a rise of about 1 percent from the previous year, adjusted for inflation.
• Individuals accounted for the largest share by far. Indeed, most charitable giving — $229 billion or about 75 percent total – comes from individuals.
• About two-thirds of households with incomes under $100,000 give to charity.
• Half of individual giving went to religious groups. Religious congregations received one-third of the $306.4 billion, an increase of 2 percent from last year and a record dollar amount.
  
• As economic woes have increased worldwide, Americans are responding by redirecting some of their giving. Donations to international aid, environmental and human-services groups rose the most in 2007.
• Donations to international charities showed the single largest gain — a rise of about 13 percent.
• On average Americans gives 2.3 percent of their disposable income to charitable causes.
• Americans rank first in the world in giving as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), at 1.7 percent, followed by Great Britain (.73 percent). (These are 2006 figures.)

And this is after being taxed 50+ percent by federal, state and local governments. People ask how possibly could a free society take care of those in need… this is how. Just like it is now and was in the past. Real charity.

Related posts:

1. Americans give record $295B to charity
2. Marijuana arrests set new record, costs $10.7b/year
3. Another record year in marijuana arrests

In May, the Commonwealth Fund issued its latest comparison of the U.S. medical system with five other wealthy nations’ systems: Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Great Britain.

Predictably, the study begins: “Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms.”

I was immediately suspicious, considering the loaded study by the World Health Organization seven years ago. (I wrote about it last week.)

Michael Cannon, the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies, summed up what’s wrong with the study: “The report does nothing more than reveal which nation does the worst job of satisfying the subjective preferences of the people who conducted this study.”
Fans of the Canadian system should note that Canada ranked fifth out of six and did worse than the U.S. in many ways.

I love how this and the WHO report go out of their way to make the US system look bad without it looking so bad as to be unbelievable. Since most people only read the headlines or the overall ‘rank’ assigned it makes it easy to sneak the truth by the public. It’s interesting how they weight having computers to print medication lists the same as receiving preventive care. Equity doesn’t go into detail as to what ’sick’ means when people don’t go to the doctor when sick. Lots of people don’t go when sick because it’s not necessary. How many of those in the UK (who’s 1st in equity) go just because they can? I’ve read that the elderly will make appointments because they are lonely and in some UK hospitals they’ve had to introduce a small copay to keep them from wasting the doctors time. Freedom will drive down health care and insurance prices and keep our quality up… not more government regulation.

Related posts:

1. John Edwards promoting mandatory healthcare
2. John Stossel: Legalize All Drugs
3. John Stossel’s 20/20 Sick in America

Freedom, liberty are not simply things to celebrate one day a year… but ideas which must be practiced and upheld every minute of every day by and for each and every individual. It requires great will and stamina and unfortunately sometimes blood. But it is an incredibly worthy cause and I wish to thank all those who have fought and are fighting the good fight for their fellow countrymen… their fellow man.

Related posts:

1. Happy belated Independence Day!
2. Think Twice News: Defiance Tea Party – July 4th, 2009
3. Ron Paul scaling back presidential campaign, rules out 3rd party run

Related posts:

1. 4th of July
2. Happy Independence Day
3. Quest for Freedom by Elaine Brown