Reddit mentions of Copyright in Historical Perspective

I doubt you know what the original idea or intent was. Here's a hint, copyright was not created by the founding fathers and in fact none of them where alive when it all started.

If you're thinking about how it supposedly helps artists then you've been brainwashed by the constant bombardment of advertising (which started hundreds of years ago right along side copyright). Copyright is to help publishers not artists. It was never about artists. Copyright has always been about publishers and censorship (that's not hyperbole, it literally started as censorship).

If you want to learn more about copyright you could check out:

Against Intellectual Monopoly (which has an obvious bias, but factual history lessons)

Rethinking Copyright is a little less biased, but a good read.

Copyright in Historical Perspective is a fair historical work done in the late 60s. It's very informative and not biased.

I'd recommend reading any of them. The first is free on the website I linked and the others can easily be pirated if you don't like the price.

Hurray! I spent a summer reading extensively about this subject and I think I can point you in the right direction!

I have four books I would like to recommend to get you started. These four will give you a great historical perspective and all the vocabulary you'll need to do further research should you be so inclined. Without further adieu:

[Copyright in Historical Perspective]
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826513735/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Get ready to learn old english! It is difficult at first, but if you try to read phonetically rather than literally it's not too bad. This book starts way before copyright was even a word and continues up to around the turn of the 20th century. I would strongly recommend reading through this book twice before moving on for two reasons. One, reading old english is really hard at first. Two, the amount of information in this book is staggering to say the least. It is by far the best book I've read to give a reader the greatest overview and understanding of how the concept of intellectual property came to be. A fair warning, this book was written in the 1960s and as such the writing is a bit dry. Which brings me to my next suggestion.

Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates

This book was written much more recently and has a much more conversational tone to it. It doesn't have quite as much old english to it and when it does the author was nice enough modernize it for you. It has a lot of the same information as the previous book, but I strongly recommend this book as Adrian Johns has some great insights towards the end when he starts to get to the later half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.

The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind

In this book, James Boyle gives a great overview of the current fight being waged in the courtroom over intellectual property. He certainly has an agenda with this book but I'll let you do the reading and make up your own mind.

The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World

No list of books about copyright and intellectual property can go without Lawrence Lessig. Read this book and you'll understand why I've included it.

I would really encourage you to read these 4 in this order as well. I did so by happenstance and the flow from one book to the next was better than I could have possibly planned. Good luck!