From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Law / Copyrights / Patents Outline

The Oldest Known Tablet Containing a Legal Code
(2,100 BCE – 2,050 BCE)

The Code of Hammurabi
(Circa 1,760 BCE)

The Transition from Papyrus to Parchment
(Circa 300 CE)

Constantine's Religious Toleration Does Not Apply to Jews
(October 18, 315 CE)

Composition of the Babylonian Talmud
(Circa 490 CE – 542)

The Code of Justinian
(529 – 533)

An Almost Unique Witness to the Original Justinian Digest
(533 – 555)

One of the Earliest Surviving Legal Codices
(Circa 550)

Production of Manuscripts and Interest in Books Begins in Germany in the Last Third of the Eighth Century
(Circa 770)

"The Oldest Western European Codex in Private Hands"
(Circa 775)

264 Manuscript Books or Fragments Survive of Texts Written before 800
(799)

The Magna Carta
(January – June 17, 1215)

Most Important Law Book of the German Middle Ages
(1220 – 1235)

Banning the Use of Paper for Legal Documents
(1231)

Confirmation that Printed Textiles Exist in Europe
(1234)

Precedent and Common Law
(1250 – 1256)

The Domus Conversorum, Later the Public Record Office
(1253)

Early Origins of the Star Chamber
(1275)

The Earliest Surviving Statute Regulating the Paris Book Trade
(December 8, 1275)

A Venetian Ordinance on the Production of Eyeglasses
(April 2, 1300)

Scribes in London First Organize
(September 23, 1373)

The First English Patent for an Invention
(1449)

Fust Files a Lawsuit against Gutenberg to Recover Money Used for the "Work of the Books"
(November 6, 1455)

The Beginning of Printing in Venice
(September 1469)

Probably the First Printed Law Book
(January 26, 1475)

The First Known Author's Copyright
(September 1, 1486 – May 21, 1487)

The First Book Printed in the Ottoman Empire
(December 13, 1493)

The First Record of a Privilege Granted for Music Printing
(May 25, 1498)

The First Documented Legal Case Concerning Copyright
(1517)

The First Legal Bibliography
(1522)

Concentrating the Entire Printing Business in the Members of the Stationers Company
(May 4, 1557)

Consolidating and Amplifying the Regulation of Printing in England
(June 23, 1586)

Among the First Records of Litigation over an Invention
(1607)

Abolition of the Star Chamber Stimulates Publishing
(1641)

The British Government Attempts to Re-Establish Censorship
(June 16, 1643)

"For Books are Not Absolutely Dead Things; but Doe Contain a Potencie of Life . . . ."
(1644)

Laws of Book Production and the Book Trade
(1675)

Foundation of Palaeography and Diplomatics
(1681)

George II Donates the "Old Royal Library"
(1757)

The First Patent for Paper Recycling
(April 28, 1800)

Bell Invents and Patents the Telephone
(March 10, 1876)

The Berne Convention
(September 9, 1886)

Authorship of the ENIAC Design
(September 27, 1944)

Von Neumann's First Draft Bars Patenting the ENIAC
(April 8, 1947)

Eckert & Mauchly Apply for a Patent on the Stored-Program Computer
(June 26, 1947)

Patenting the Mercury Acoustic Delay-Line Electronic Memory
(October 31, 1947)

Sperry Rand Cross-Licenses Patents with IBM
(August 21, 1956)

Pioneering Computer-Assisted Legal Research
(1960)

The First Software Patent
(1960 – November 20, 1968)

The ENIAC Patent
(February 4, 1964)

Full-Text Interactive Search Service
(1967)

Mead Purchases Data Corporation
(1968)

The First General Patent on the Microprocessor
(December 1970)

Lexis
(1973)

The ENIAC Patent is Invalidated
(October 19, 1973)

Foundation of the Biotechnology Industry
(1974)

U.S. v. IBM is in Trial
(May 19, 1975)

An Open Letter to Hobbyists
(February 3, 1976)

The Basis for Cellular Telephone Technology
(May 1, 1979)

Nexis
(1980)

The U.S. Withdraws its Antitrust Case Against IBM
(January 8, 1982)

Early Form of Digital Rights Management
(1983)

Junk Faxes are Outlawed
(1991)

Cyberspace Law
(October 29, 1991)

Perhaps the First Law Review Symposium Dedicated to Cyberspace
(1993)

Selling Wine without Bottles
(1994)

Steve Jackson Games v. U.S. Secret Service
(October 31, 1994)

Over One Billion Documents
(1996)

The WIPO Copyright Treaty
(December 20, 1996)

The Internet is Entitled to the Full Protection Given to Printed Material
(June 26, 1997)

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act
(October 12, 1998)

Domain Names are Property
(1999)

Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
(November 29, 1999)

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
(2000)

Weapons of Financial Mass Destruction
(December 14 – December 21, 2000)

Safeguarding of Internet Security
(December 28, 2000)

The Future of Ideas: The Fate of Commons in a Connected World
(2001)

An Injunction Against Napter to Prevent Trading of Copyrighted Music
(March 5, 2001)

Creative Commons
(December 2002)

The First U.S. Standards for Sending Commercial E-Mail
(December 16, 2003)

Code 2.2 wiki
(March 2005)

"Peer to Patent"
(July 14, 2005)

Moratorium on Scanning Books
(August 11, 2005)

The Open Content Alliance
(October 25, 2005)

Publishing Patent Filings on the Web
(September 26, 2006)

Authors, Publishers and Google Reach "Landmark Settlement"
(October 28, 2008)

Piracy of Internet Filtering Software?
(June 13, 2009)

Amazon Sends Orwell eBooks Down the "Memory Hole"
(July 16, 2009)

" A Library to Last Forever" ??
(October 9, 2009)

The Amazon Kindle is Hacked; eBook Digital Rights Management Cracked
(December 23, 2009)