The BBC has a nice look at the history of copyright contoversies, noting that, “Just as every generation thinks it is the first to discover sex, so every generation thinks it is the first to suffer problems with copyright and piracy.”
The amusing thing, of course, is that in the 19th century it was the United States that was a haven for such intellectual property pirates. The United States did not recognize copyrights on foreign works, and as a result works by British authors and composers were produced here without paying a dime of royalties to the authors.
Ironically, the United States now calls for sanctions against countries which adopt that sort of laissez-faire attitude toward copyrights.
Source:
Copyright rows ring down the centuries. Mark Ward, The BBC, June 17, 2002.