Sweden’s first copyright acts (1810-1877)

”Every script [copy] shall be the author’s or his legal rights holder’s property. He who prints or reprints a script [copy] without the author’s or publisher’s written permission, shall lose the entire edition or pay a fine to its full value, undividedly accrued to the plaintiff.”

This was the first, very brief, copyright legislation in Sweden. It was subsection 8 of the first section of the (constitutional) Freedom of the Press Act of 1810. In 1855 came a civil law, outside of the constitutional laws, concerning dramatic works, and in 1876 came the first ”regulation on ownership of script [copy]”. It was a temporary solution, and already the next year saw the enactment of the first more elaborate Swedish law on authors’ rights, 1877.

I have for many years been working on a book about copyright history. At the book’s web site, I have now uploaded these first four Swedish copyright laws. At the bottom of the web pages there are comments in Swedish and English.

See http://www.copyrighthistory.com

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