Locke's 1694 Memorandum (and More Incomplete Copyright Historiographies)

Abstract:     
This is a reproduction of John Locke's 1694(-5) memorandum opposing renewal of the Licensing Act, along with a short introduction. In the memorandum, Locke strongly attacks the monopoly held by the Stationers Company under the Licensing Act while simultaneously proposing a limited term property right in books - the approach finally accepted in the author-centered Statute of Anne. One option proposed by Locke is that authors' property rights in their works would be recognized for an author's life +70 year term. The introduction provides some historical background on the memorandum and reviews some previous treatments of the memorandum in intellectual property commentary.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: John Locke, copyright, intellectual property

working papers series