the.com/copyright

means The legal right granted to creators to control copying, distribution, and adaptation of their original work for a set period of time.

from A straightforward compound from the 1700s: 'copy' (a reproduction or transcript, from Latin copia, 'abundance') plus 'right' (a legal entitlement). It emerged alongside early copyright statutes like Britain's Statute of Anne (1710), which for the first time gave authors — not just printers — a legal claim over their printed copies. The word is refreshingly literal: it's the right to the copy.