Engraver's Act

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The Engraver's Act , Engravers' Copyright Act or Hogarth Act (8 Geo. II c.13) was the second copyright law in the world after the Statute of Anne . The British Parliament passed the Act in 1735 , extending copyright protection to include copperplate engravings . The driving force behind the law was the engraver William Hogarth , after whom this law is colloquially named.

content

The Engraver's Act was closely based on the Statute of Anne. Unlike this, however, it was primarily intended to protect the rights of authors and not those of publishers. On the other hand, it dealt with a visual art in which the connection between content and form is naturally closer than with text works.

In its original form, the law only protected engravers who also created the model of the engraving. Artists who copied existing works of art were exposed. This did not change until 1767 through a revision (7 Geo. III ch. 38), and only since 1777 (17 Geo. III ch. 58) did the original works of art themselves enjoy protection; d. H. if someone wanted to use a work of art or a building as an engraving, they needed the permission of the original artist.

Emergence

The law goes back largely to the work of William Hogarth. In his time, copper engravings were no longer primarily sold in the original, but as prints made from the original engraving. While most engravers either copied existing paintings or buildings or engraved small advertising messages in the form of “tradecards”, Hogarth was one of the few who created original works of art and then converted them into engraving. He designed and painted most of his well-known works, then engraved and published them. For others, he hired engravers to transform his paintings into engravings.

Hogarth's works were well known and were copied by numerous imitators; a practice that caused him significant financial losses as well as damage to his reputation - often the copies were of poor quality and the buyer had no chance of distinguishing them from the originals.

After spending years complaining to the press about the copies, in 1734 he campaigned for a law to protect engravings in a manner similar to the Statute of Anne books. His leaflet The case of designers, engravers, etchers, etc. stated in a letter to a member of parliament was influential . In it he complained bitterly about the London publishers who were robbing artists of their wages and argued with John Locke's theory of property through work. With it he established a natural right of artists to own their work. Through both the pamphlet and personal auditions with members of parliament, he managed to get Parliament to pass the law.

literature

  • William Hogarth: The case of designers, engravers, etchers, etc. stated in a letter to a member of parliament. London 1735; reprint New York 1975.
  • David Hunter: Copyright protection for engravings and maps in eighteenth-century Britain. In: The Library. Ser. 6 v. 9 (1987) pp. 128-147
  • Mark Rose: Technology and Copyright in 1735: The Engraver's Act. In: The Information Society 21. 2005, pp. 63-66.