In 1710 the British Parliament enacted the Statute of Anne, the first copyright legislation that invested specified legal rights in owners of literary property. This gave protection to authors in the form of a privilege to control the printing of copies for fourteen years after the first edition, with the option of renewal for the same period. Its title included “the Encouragement of Learning” (pp. 7–8) as a desideratum, a provision that resonates with John Willinsky’s own advocacy of open access in the digital era. In contrast, the rationale of the previous Licensing Act of 1662 was control of heresy and sedition, although it did require a copy of every book to be sent to designated “public” libraries (p. 250) such as those of the two universities, an arrangement initiated by Thomas Bodley for Oxford from 1610.