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Medieval Copy Protection

Posted by samzenpus on from the thou-shall-write-your-own-book dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In medieval times a 'book curse' was often included on the inside cover or on the last leaf of a manuscripts, warning away anyone who might do the book some harm. Here's a particularly pretty one from Yale's Beinecke MS 214: 'In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. In the one thousand two hundred twenty-ninth year from the incarnation of our Lord, Peter, of all monks the least significant, gave this book to the [Benedictine monastery of the] most blessed martyr, St. Quentin. If anyone should steal it, let him know that on the Day of Judgment the most sainted martyr himself will be the accuser against him before the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.'"

4 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. That's not copy protection by XanC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's theft protection. Copyright infringement != theft, remember?

    1. Re:That's not copy protection by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Precisely.

      The need to curse thieves of expensive hand-written Bibles disappeared when the printing press appeared, and Bibles became as plentiful as leaves to wipe your arse. Then nobody cared if you took it from the church (it was easily replaced). Some even started giving bibles away, in order to educate the masses. And of course the bible is not and never has been copy-protected.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  2. Equally Effective by pwnies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I see that the effectiveness of DRM hasn't changed in 800 years.

    1. Re:Equally Effective by mackai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The copyright lobby would be more likely want an additional fee added to the purchase of every pen based on the amount of text you could potentially copy before the ink ran out. This fee would be provided to book publishers to offset the losses they might encounter should you decide to copy portions of the book instead of purchasing an additional copy of the book.