The history of copyright law began when early printers of books were granted certain monopolies and rights relating to the reproduction of all or part of those books. While copyright laws in the beginning only applied to the reproduction of …show more content…
Supporters of never ending copyright reasoned that without it authors and content creators would have no motivation to continue creating works of any value because they could not leave the copyrighted works rights to the next generation of their family. Opponents often argued that neverending copyright was nothing more than a complete monopoly that artificially raised the price of books, making them less attainable to the general population, and this prevented the spread of ideas and knowledge. (Eh.net ,an Economic History of Copyright in Europe and the United States). In time it came to be generally accepted that authors and content creators had a pre-existing copyright based on past common law, but that governing bodies such as legislatures and parliaments, had handicapped these common law rights to acquire more favorable balance between the interests of the content creator and the general population (Standler Ronald , Common-Law Copyright in