printing press and social change 17th cent england

BBC' radio 4 has a fascinating 40 minute discussion of the influence the printing press had in seventeenth century England (mp3 download available for a week or so here, then later in the archives for In Our Time on radio 4). It's ironic listening to this program on the empowering nature of the printing press for the growth of democratic society and innovative culture in the middle of the 1600's and simultaneously reading the BBC's "permissions" rights associated with the download of the MP3 file .
"The BBC grants you a 7-day, non-exclusive licence to download this In Our Time audio. You may not copy, reproduce, edit, adapt, alter, republish, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, or otherwise use this audio in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may not use this file for the purpose of promoting, advertising, endorsing or implying a connection with you (or any third party) and the BBC, its agents or employees." . How would such a claim been received by citizens in the 17th century - just prior to the English civil war? I hope they would have ignored it as more censorship and social control from the crown and publishers in power ...as I am sure most 20the century internet surfers will do with the BBC broadcast today , at least in "private" whatever that means. perhaps the Public Knowledge sitecould/should point to these historical impacts of major technological change and ask the "what-if" question: what-if our regulations and enforcement were applied then and what if their regulations and enforcement were applied now? Which would lead to the more interesting progressive and dynamic culture??

Consider a practical example of what I mean. One of the panel discussants [Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Keele,] explains (around 6:20 into the programme) the feedback and interaction between oral culture and print cuture in relation to ballads - a popular form of discourse and communication at the time. The BBC's current permissions statement on mp3 use would restrict that interpersonal and public use & re-use since the printed ballads borrowed and took from and built open the oral ballads and vice versa, the print ballads fed back into the oral culture of ballads - especially via communication from those who could read the ballads to those who could not read (1/3 urban men, 1/2 urban women at the time, according to later information in the programme). Then, around 20 minutes into the program, the discussion of the influence of printing on the civil war is that printing itself constructed/created communities in press - ie printing and publishing is an essentially social activity . So if there is an interweaving of print and oral discussion in an ongoing to and fro process the 21 first century mp3 restrictions not to "reproduce, edit, adapt, alter, republish, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public" , if effectively enforced back in the 17 century would have stifled this interaction and feedback - ie cultural innovation. The essential dynamic links between the oral (still predominant but declining ) form of knowledge creation and transmission and the developing print forms would have been severed, cut, or at least seriously impeded. Contrast the effects of the Creative Archive Initiative or here.