[Foundation-l] GFDL and relicensing

[geni]

On 22/11/2007, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> This reference to Napoleon and Queen Anne is a wee bit to esoteric for me ..
> please provide a reference so that I can pretend to be clever. :)
> Thanks,
>     Gerard

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne

If your country was ever run by an bunch of upper class English twits
your copyright system can probably be ultimately traced back to that
act.

Napoleon in between conquering those bits of Europe not run by English
upper class twits reformed the legal system and it from that legal
system that most of the other copyright systems around come from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_copyright

Focuses overmuch on the common law system but is a start.
-- 
geni