Was Germany’s 19th century industrial expansion due to an absence of copyright?
Another solid argument for serious copyright reform.<p>It's not only 19th Century Germany that's demonstrated that ready access to information by many is one of the best ways to develop a country but it's been paralleled by China who has only paid lip service to copyright for decades. That's been demonstrated over and over in recent years.<p>I'd go as far as to say that if the US doesn't seriously reform copyright and patent law it'll not only fall behind China but will fall so far behind that in decades to come it'll become just an also-ran.<p>Look at it this way, when quality textbooks can cost anything upwards of $200 - $300 due to controlled monopolistic markets then many are deprived of access to the information they contain.  I'd even put myself in that class, I can't afford books at that price and I know many others can't either.<p>I'm not against reasonable copyright and patent law but what we have now is not reasonable by a long shot. As I see it, these laws are only benefiting a few and they're having a disproportionate negative effect on the economics and wellbeing of the country.<p>Incidentally, one of the worst aspects of these laws is how easily they allow opportunistic people/organizations to lockup  information that was once in the public domain by artifice and subterfuge.