As a matter of principle, the nature of copyright itself, and the reasons why it should be recognized in law, have, as already stated, been the subject of bitter dispute. It was attacked as constituting a monopoly, and it has been argued that copyright should be looked upon as a doubtful exception to the general law regulating trade, and should be strictly limited in point of duration. On the other hand, it is claimed that copyright, being in the nature of personal property, should be perpetual. A man's own work, in this view, is as much _his_ as his house or his money, and should be protected by the state. Historically, and in legal definition, there would appear to be no doubt that copyright, as regulated by statute, is strictly a monopoly. The parliamentary protection of works of art for the period of fourteen years by an act of 1709 and later statutes appears, as Blackstone points out, to have been suggested by the exception in the Statute of Monopolies 1623. The object of that statute was to suppress the royal grants of exclusive right to trade in certain articles, and to reassert in relation to all such monopolies the common law of the land. Certain exceptions were made on grounds of public policy, and among others it was allowed that a royal patent of privilege might be granted for fourteen years "to any inventor of a new manufacture for the sole working or making of the same." Copyright, like patent right, would be covered by the legal definition of a monopoly. It is a mere right to prevent other people from manufacturing certain articles. But objections to monopolies in general do not apply to this particular class of cases, in which the author of a new work in literature or art has the right of preventing others from manufacturing copies thereof and selling them to the public. The rights of persons licensed to sell spirits, to hold theatrical exhibitions, &c., are also of the nature of monopolies, and may be defended on special grounds of public policy. The monopoly of authors and inventors rests on the general sentiment underlying all civilized law, that a man should be protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of his own labour.
2. _United Kingdom._--On the invention of printing (see PRESS LAWS) the crown, or other sovereign powers, granted patents or licences with the object of restricting the right of multiplying copies of literary works, and this supervision of publication still has certain historical results. A special kind of what amounts to perpetual copyright in various publications has for various reasons been recognized by the laws (1) in the crown, and (2) in the universities and colleges. The various copyright acts, referred to below, except from their provisions the copyrights vested in the two English and the four Scottish universities, Trinity College, Dublin, and the colleges of Eton, Westminster and Winchester. Crown copyrights are saved by the general principle which exempts crown rights from the operation of statutes unless they are expressly mentioned. Among the books in which the crown has claimed copyright are the English translation of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, statutes, orders of privy council, proclamations, almanacs, Lilly's Latin Grammar, year books and law reports. The copyright in the Bible is rested by some on the king's position as head of the church; Lord Lyndhurst rested it on his duties as the chief executive officer of the state charged with the publication of authorized manuals of religion. The right of printing the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer is vested in the king's printer and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. These copyrights do not extend to prohibit independent translations from the original. The obsolete copyright of the crown in Lilly's Latin Grammar was founded on the fact of its having been drawn up at the king's expense. The universities have a joint right (with the crown's patentees) of printing acts of parliament. Law reports were decided to be the property of the crown in the reign of Charles II.; by act of parliament they were forbidden to be published without licence from the chancellor and the chiefs of the three courts, and this form of licence remained in use after the act had expired. University and college copyrights were made perpetual by an act of George III., but only on condition of the books being printed at their printing presses and for their own benefit.