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In 1557 Mary Tudor had incorporated the Stationer’s company. They were the only people who were allowed to publish and distribute books. The wardens of the Stationer’s company had the power to enter any printing premises and destroy illegal works and imprison the printer. This, I suppose, was a form of copyright but the author got nothing out of it. Print production was in the company’s hands and they had the right to censure and edit. It would seem that by 1694 Parliament had decided that this was unreasonable and refused to renew the Stationer’s Company licence. Over the next ten years the Stationer’s company lobbied parliament and finally got a new bill - but they had to agree to initially licencing copyright to authors not publishers. Royal assent was given in 1710 and it became known as the Statute of Anne. This assigned a copyright lasting 14 years to the author after which it reverted to the Public domain. This survived until the 1842 copyright act.

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