This is a point that has also been made by German historian Eckhard Höffner[1]. He claims that one of the main reasons for Germany's rise as an industrial power during the 19th century was its very lax copyright regulations that allowed a rapid distribution of pirate prints of publications to every corner of Germany, thus creating a very large reading public that would later flock to universities and engineering schools and fuel Germany's innovative economy.
So far there hasn't been an English translation, although Ars Technica, Wired and the English edition of the Spiegel carried good reviews/summaries[2][3][4]
[1] Eckhard Höffner: Geschichte und Wesen des Urheberrechts. Verlag Europäische Wirtschaft, 2010, ISBN 978-3930893164 (2 Tomes).
So far there hasn't been an English translation, although Ars Technica, Wired and the English edition of the Spiegel carried good reviews/summaries[2][3][4]
[1] Eckhard Höffner: Geschichte und Wesen des Urheberrechts. Verlag Europäische Wirtschaft, 2010, ISBN 978-3930893164 (2 Tomes).
[2] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/08/drool-britannia-d...
[3] http://www.wired.com/business/2010/08/copyright-germany-brit...
[4] http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/no-copyright-l...