Thursday, August 09, 2012

German Miracle From No Copyrights?

Was Germany's phenomenal growth partly caused by an absence of copyrights and patents?

Der Spiegel thinks so.

I'd paste it here, but it's copyrighted!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember reading this piece when it was originally published in the Spiegel. Any specific reason for blogging it now?

Herr Fuchs

P.S. Imho the increased interest in books/literature started off in the Holy Roman Empire within the era of enlightenment and later continued spreading due to the unexpected shocks of the French Revolution, when different concepts had to be published in contrast to the traditional enlightenment literature, as well. Already back then there was a strong censorship by most of the governments/authorities of the member states of the HRE and quite efficient networks for delivering pamphlets etc., which were published in the underground, had to be developed. The censorship continued just as the illegal destribution of literature did during the time of the German Confederation, where the Spiegel article takes place.
As a result censorship might also have had a catalytic effect on the spread off knowledge like the absence of copyright laws did.

Mungowitz said...

Well, touch YOU, Fuchs! I guess I don't read as fast as you do.

Interesting point on censorship, thanks!