Copyright is the exclusive right to multiply copies of a written or printed composition, or of a work of art. Such rights were claimed by authors even before the introduction of printing. After the invention of the printing press, the right to publish books became the subject of licenses and patents. The terms of copyright and the legal questions bearing on them are so complex as to demand study in special treatises.

The first steps to secure international copyright to protect the works of artists and authors were taken at Berne, September, 1885. Prominent part in the proceedings was taken by representatives from Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Tunis, Hayti, and Honduras. A draft of a convention was settled to secure in each of these countries international copyright. An office of International Union for protection of literary and artistic works was established under the supervision of the Swiss Government. In Great Britain, acts of Parliament were passed successively in 1844, 1852, 1875, and 1886, to secure to foreign authors and artists the copyright of their works, provided British artists and authors were reciprocally protected in such foreign countries, discretion being given to Her Majesty, by order in council, to fix conditions of compliance. In the United States an international copyright act came into force July 1, 1891, securing under certain conditions, artistic and literary copyright between Great Britain and the United States. One important condition of the new act is its requirement that the work must be printed in the United States to secure the advantages of international copyright.