II.   Sovereign

Copyright is a legal fiction first invented at the start of the 18th Century as the leasehold by enfranchisement of Copyhold Property by Agreement or presumption of surrender or abandonment of past, present or future Copyhold claims first applied to books and printed material. Copyright is therefore a lower claim than Copyhold.

The term Copyright originates sometime after 1736 from the phrase “copy out” being the right to make copies of original works normally reserved for officials and within the functions of Chancery.

The first introduction of Copyright was in application to books and printed material through an act by Queen Anne in 1709 (8 Ann. c.19) whereby authors, publishers, printers or booksellers that possessed a Copyhold could surrender that right to the Crown as an exclusive franchise through the publishing of the work which would then be protected for fourteen (14) years before all rights reverting as “public domain” or owned by the Crown.

Copyright “protection” of an unregistered original work is effectively a presumed claim of leasehold by enfranchisement derived from some expected future Copyhold to be created upon some final official registration and surrender of higher Rights.

While Copyright is commonly associated only with books and published material, the concept applies to all property capable of being held in Copyhold.

A Person cannot both claim Copyright and Copyhold. One who claims Copyright, by definition surrenders Copyhold.

When one states “All Rights Reserved” in explicit reference to Copyhold Property in their possession, such a claim repudiates any presumed authority by a franchisee such as a corporation possessing a Copyright claim of a surrender in Copyhold.