Copyright
Copyright law developed from the earliest monopoly held by Petrucci in Venice, and later a similar monopoly granted by Queen Elizabeth I to William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. Later, King Henry VIII of England passed a law which required copies of all printed matter to be sent to the king and offered protection to printers in the form of licenses. This benefited the king with a new source of revenue. Elizabeth I granted the monopoly of music publishing to Tallis and his pupil William Byrd which ensured that their works were widely distributed and have survived in various editions, but arguably limited the potential for music publishing in Britain.
The earliest attempt at printed musical 'copyright' appears in the 'Shir Hashirim' of Salomone Rossi (Venice, 1623) which includes a rabbinical curse on those pirating the text, written by Leon of Modena.
The licensing act of 1662 in England required the printer of every book to print on it a certificate of the licensor, stating that it contained no writing "contrary to the Christian faith, or the doctrine or discipline of the church of England against the state and government of the realm, or contrary to good life or good manners, or otherwise".
It was in 1709 that the Statute of Anne was promulgated, which gave protection of a work initially for a period of 21 years, later extended to 28 years.
In the United States, protecting music initially was not a priority. In 1789 when the first congress of the US passed the first federal copyright law, music was not included. The Copyright Act of 1831 expanded the law to include musical compositions, although only the reproduction right for printed music was protected. The copyright term for protection was 28 years plus a 14-year renewal period.
France followed with establishing their own copyright law. Soon began a movement for some international accord, which eventually came about at the meeting of Bern in 1886.
The 14 original member states of the Bern union adopted what is referred to as the Bern Convention.
The core of the Convention is its provision that each of the contracting countries shall provide automatic protection for works in other countries of the union and for unpublished works whose authors are citizens of or residents in such other countries.
Copyright law encompasses not merely the right to print, but the right to collect revenue from all rights including but not limited to performance rights and phonographic rights. As of April 2000, over 76 countries have approved membership in the Bern convention.
Read more about this topic: History Of Music Publishing