History
As technology seems to push us forward faster and faster every year, it’s important to remember that publishing played a vastly significant part in the development of human history and modern culture. Year after year, publishers allow authors to share with the world information of every imaginable variety: personal anecdotes, dark fantasies, visions of the future, inciting commentary, healing stories, and discoveries that could improve or harm the world we live in. Without publishing, the course of history may have been vastly different, for better or worse. What if Martin Luther had never printed his Bible? What if Thomas Paine had never written “Common Sense?” What if The Prince, or The Communist Manifesto, or Mein Kampf had never changed millions of minds?
If publishers are to continue to commercially publish–to further the most grand and most mundane records of human existence on such a large scale–protections for their investments must exist. Similarly, artists’ and readers’ rights can’t fall behind. In order to further a discussion of rights and llegal duties, a brief overview of the protections that seem to have always existed for publishers is in order.
