After Bloody Mary had enacted the copyright censorship monopoly
in 1557, neither the profitable industry guild nor the censoring
Crown had any desire to abolish it. It would stand for 138 years
uninterrupted. As we have seen, the copyright monopoly was
instituted as a censorship mechanism by Mary I in 1557 to
prevent people from discussing or disseminating Protestant
material. Her successor, Elizabeth I, was just as happy to keep
the monopoly after Mary’s death in 1558 to prevent people from
discussing or disseminating Catholic material. During the 1600s,
Parliament gradually tried to wrestle control of the censorship
from the Crown. In 1641, Parliament abolished the court where
copyright cases had been tried, the infamous Star Chamber. In
effect, this turned violation of the monopoly into a
sentenceless crime, much like jaywalking in Sweden today: while
it was still technically a crime, and techically illegal, you
could not be tried for it and there was no punishment. As a
result, creativity in Britain soare