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Donaldson V Becket
''Donaldson v Becket'' (1774) 2 Brown's Parl. Cases (2d ed.) 129, 1 Eng. Rep. 837; 4 Burr. 2408, 98 Eng. Rep. 257; 17 Cobbett's Parl. Hist. 953 is the ruling by the British House of Lords that held that copyright in published works was not perpetual but was subject to statutory limits. Some scholars disagree on the reasoning behind the decision. Name The spelling of the chief respondent in the case, Thomas Becket, sometimes appears as Beckett. For those looking to choose one spelling over the other, it would be more correct to use Becket. Firstly, Becket overwhelmingly spelled his surname ''t'', not ''tt''. Secondly, many of the original contemporaneous records in the case also spelled his surname ''Becket''. Those records include the original proceedings of the dispute in the Court of Chancery. Additionally, the manuscript records of the appeal in the House of Lords, including the manuscript minutes and manuscript journal of the House of Lords, caption the case using the spell ...
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British House Of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest extant institutions in the world, its origins lie in the early 11th century and the emergence of bicameralism in the 13th century. In contrast to the House of Commons, membership of the Lords is not generally acquired by election. Most members are appointed for life, on either a political or non-political basis. Hereditary membership was limited in 1999 to 92 excepted hereditary peers: 90 elected through internal by-elections, plus the Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain as members ''ex officio''. No members directly inherit their seats any longer. The House of Lords also includes up to 26 archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, known as Lords Spiritual. Since 2014, membership may be voluntarily relinquished or terminated upon expulsion. As the upper house of ...
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Alexander Donaldson (bookseller)
Alexander Donaldson (1727 – 11 March 1794) was a Scottish bookseller, publisher, and printer. Donaldson was the founding publisher of the weekly newspaper, the '' Edinburgh Advertiser''. He was also known for selling cheap copies of books after their copyright had expired in disregard to London booksellers' opinions on literary property. Early years Donaldson was the son of Dr James Donaldson (died 1754), a textile manufacturer and Treasurer of Edinburgh. His mother was Elizabeth Weir (died 1768). He had an older brother, John. His paternal grandfather was Capt. James Donaldson, publisher of '' The Edinburgh Gazette''. Donaldson inherited approximately £10,000 from his father. In 1748, he opened a bookselling shop in Edinburgh. Two years later, on 29 August 1750, he was made a Burgess and Guild Brother of Edinburgh by right of his father in lieu of an apprenticeship. He married a merchant's daughter, Anna Marshall, on 10 January 1751 and may have received a substantia ...
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Division Of The Assembly
In parliamentary procedure, a division of the assembly, division of the house, or simply division is a method of taking a vote that physically counts members voting. Historically, and often still today, members are literally divided into physically separate groups. This was the method used in the Roman Senate (vote ''per secessionem''), and occasionally in Athenian democracy. Westminster system parliament chambers have separate ''division lobbies'' for the "Ayes" and "Noes" to facilitate physical division. In several assemblies, a division bell is rung throughout the building when a division is happening, in order to alert members not present in the chamber. In the United Kingdom, division bells are also present in a number of bars and restaurants near the Palace of Westminster in order to call members to vote who may be outside the building. Australia House of Representatives In the Australian House of Representatives divisions follow a form similar to that of the United Ki ...
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Public Domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission. As examples, the works of William Shakespeare, Ludwig van Beethoven, Miguel de Cervantes, Zoroaster, Lao Zi, Confucius, Aristotle, L. Frank Baum, Leonardo da Vinci and Georges Méliès are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before copyright existed, or by their copyright term having expired. Some works are not covered by a country's copyright laws, and are therefore in the public domain; for example, in the United States, items excluded from copyright include the formulae of Classical mechanics, Newtonian physics and cooking recipes. Other works are actively dedicated by their authors to the public domain (see waiver) ...
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Stationers' Company
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in 1403; it received a royal charter in 1557. It held a monopoly over the publishing industry and was officially responsible for setting and enforcing regulations until the enactment of the Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1710. Once the company received its charter, "the company's role was to regulate and discipline the industry, define proper conduct and maintain its own corporate privileges." The company members, including master, wardens, assistants, liverymen, freemen and apprentices are mostly involved with the modern visual and graphic communications industries that have evolved from the company's original trades. These include printing, paper-making, packaging, office products, engineering, advertising, design, photogra ...
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Star Chamber
The court of Star Chamber () was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (), and was composed of privy counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the common-law and equity courts in civil and criminal matters. It was originally established to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against socially and politically prominent people sufficiently powerful that ordinary courts might hesitate to convict them of their crimes. It was mainly a court of appeal and could impose any penalty, except the death penalty, in its own right. At various times it had sub-courts for particular areas, notably for appeals of "poor man's causes". The Chamber building itself was also sometimes used for other councils, courts, and committee meetings, which may cause confusion as to the role of the court of Star Chamber. In modern times, legal or administrative bodies with strict, arbitrary rulings, no due proces ...
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William De Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham
William de Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC King's Counsel, KC (7 July 1719 – 9 May 1781), was a British lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas between 1771 and 1780. de Grey was the third son of Thomas de Grey (1680–1765), Thomas de Grey, MP, of Merton, Norfolk, and Elizabeth Windham, daughter of William Windham. He was the younger brother of another Thomas de Grey (1717–1781), Thomas de Grey. The de Grey family had been settled in Norfolk since the 14th century. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1742, and became a King's Counsel in 1758. Between 1761 and 1763 he was Solicitor General to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Charlotte. de Grey entered Parliament for Newport (Cornwall) (UK Parliament constituency), Newport, Cornwall, in 1761, a seat he held until 1770, and then represented Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency ...
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The Morning Chronicle
''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It was the first newspaper to employ a salaried woman journalist, Eliza Lynn Linton; for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew that were collected and published in book format in 1851 as '' London Labour and the London Poor''; and for publishing other major writers, such as John Stuart Mill. The newspaper published under various owners until 1862, when its publication was suspended, with two subsequent attempts at continued publication. From 28 June 1769 to March 1789 it was published under the name ''The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser''. From 1789 to its final publication in 1865, it was published under the name ''The Morning Chronicle''. Founding The ''Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser'' was founded in 1769 by Willia ...
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William Woodfall
Portrait of Portrait of William Woodfall, in the National Portrait Gallery (4672211). William Woodfall (baptised 7 February 1745 – 1803) was an English printer, publisher and Parliamentary reporter. Life William's father, Henry Woodfall, printed and published the ''Public Advertiser''. William served an apprenticeship with bookseller Richard Baldwin after attending St. Paul's School, London, and Tonbridge School, where his nickname was "Memory Woodfall". Following his father's retirement, Woodfall shared the running of the ''Public Advertiser'' with his brother Henry Sampson Woodfall. William edited the ''London Packet'' from 1772 to 1774, then joined the '' Morning Chronicle'' as publisher, editor, and reporter. In 1770 London papers began to report Parliamentary debates fully, against the rules of the House of Commons. Woodfall published long reports of over 17,000 words, often copied by other papers. He would walk down to the House of Commons "with a hard-boiled eg ...
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George Nares (judge)
Sir George Nares (1716–1786) was an English barrister, judge, and politician. Life Born at Hanwell, Middlesex, he was the younger son of George Nares of Albury, Oxfordshire, steward to the Earl of Abingdon; James Nares was his elder brother. He was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, was admitted a member of the Inner Temple on 19 October 1738, and was called to the bar on 12 June 1741. Nares practised in the criminal courts, and defended Elizabeth Canning, charged with perjury, in April 1754. He received the degree of the coif on 6 February 1759, and in the same year was appointed one of the king's serjeants. He was employed as one of the counsel for the crown in several of the cases arising out of the seizure in 1763 of issue No. 45 of ''The North Briton''. At the general election in March 1768 he was returned to the House of Commons for Oxford, of which he was already recorder. He spoke in favour of Lord Barrington's motion for the expulsion of John Wilkes on 3 ...
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British History Online
''British History Online'' is a digital library of primary and secondary sources on medieval and modern history of Great Britain and Ireland. It was created and is managed as a cooperative venture by the Institute of Historical Research, University of London and the History of Parliament Trust. Access to the majority of the content is free, but other content is available only to paying subscribers. The content includes secondary sources such as the publications of The History of Parliament, the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, the Calendar of Close Rolls, '' Survey of London'' and the ''Victoria County History''; and major published primary sources such as '' Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII'' and the ''Journals'' of the House of Lords and House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds m ...
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Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden
Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC (baptism, baptised 21 March 1714 – 18 April 1794) was an English lawyer, judge and Whig (British political faction), Whig politician who was first to hold the title of Marquess Camden, Earl Camden. As a lawyer and judge he was a leading proponent of civil liberties, championing the rights of the jury (England and Wales), jury, and limiting the powers of the Sovereign state, State in leading cases such as ''Entick v Carrington''. He held the offices of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Attorney General for England and Wales, Attorney-General and Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and was a confidant of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Pitt the Elder, supporting Pitt in the controversies over John Wilkes and American independence. However, he clung to office himself, even when Pitt was out of power, serving in the cabinet for fifteen years and under five different prime ministe ...
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