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In Elizabethan England literature had yet to be recognized as a true profession. There were writers of course, that if lucky, were financially supported by courtly or wealthy patrons. Though, it was more a time of circulating manuscripts rather than published works. Once a manuscript was sold to a Stationer (as they were called) that publisher owned the complete rights to reproduce the work. This could be a limited right to a few years, or not. There was no real benefit to publish one's work because the author had no copyrights or royalties from book sales, and instead was shared privately. It was a time to safeguard creative works so that no one would steal it.
Today, there are copyright laws that have been put into place to protect creators' content. We have come a long way from the wild west of Elizabethan publishing. These laws are to protect intellectual property of such creations of music, art, literature, drama, software, designs and more! We must ask permission to use a creator's content that is under copyright. There is a possibility that some content is under Fair Use and can be used conditionally under the specified guidelines. There are works under the Public Domain that are not copyrighted and we can use this content freely. There are penalties for what they call copyright infringement if someone uses content illegally.
Some of us can remember a time when music stealing by download was a thing, such as Napster who was unauthorized to distribute musical content. Now, we have Spotify that uses the same concept, but is not free, and the musical artists have to agree to terms of use. A few months ago Nike filed a lawsuit with pop-rapper Lil Nas X collaborator MSCHF for distributing altered satanic shoes that they did not agree to a collaboration. They repurposed a certain supply of Nike Airmax sneakers to fit his branding identity with his recent album, and sold them to fans. The case has since been settled, but it was how Lil Nas X responded to the accusations that makes we wonder if younger generations even care about protecting creative content. It would have certainly been easy enough for Lil Nas X's team to reach a collaboration deal with Nike to properly distribute his fan fare. These rules were put in place for the rights of the artist, and I hope we can teach the younger generations to not to take them for granted.
If you want to read that lawsuit article: Nike sues the maker of Lil Nas X 'Satan Shoes' for trademark infringement
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