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The lack of patent laws was very clearly a positive for Germany; the argument for those is IMO much weaker than for copyright. Especially for developing, backwa

The lack of patent laws was very clearly a positive for Germany; the argument for those is IMO much weaker than for copyright. Especially for developing, backward economies (early-19th-century US, late-19th-century Germany, and contemporary China), ignoring foreign patents is very useful for speeding up technology transfer from more advanced economies; within 19th-century US there's some limited evidence for patents being useful as a way of paying local, small producers to publish their innovations widely, but the domestic Chinese quasi-open-source "shanzhai" electronic ecosystem produces quite a lot of its own innovation while completely disregarding patent rules. But the evidence for lack of copyright being useful in that period is very weak: https://www.wired.com/2010/08/copyright-germany-britain/ https://www.wired.com/2010/08/copyright-germany-britain/ Most of the great German authors of the period had to hold other jobs to support themselves, which made completing works slow and halting. Goethe supported himself as a courtier/bureaucrat/officer of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar until his mid-40s, Hegel was a teacher and academic administrator, Kleist barely made a living off of of publishing a magazine and stints in Prussian government service, etc.

zozbot234 7y ago
> Most of the great German authors of the period had to hold other jobs to support themselves, which made completing works slow and halting. And yet, they were nonetheless able to be great authors. Now, contrast German authors of the 20th century, when copyright law was adopted. There's just no comparison.
- azernik 7y ago
  There are MANY things that changed in that period.
WalterBright 7y ago
Most authors today have to hold other jobs to support themselves. In fact it's likely the vast majority. I know several successful authors. None of them make enough off of the books to live on. But what they have done is leverage the status the books conferred into lucrative careers.
scoopertrooper 7y ago
> Especially for developing, backward economies (early-19th-century US, late-19th-century Germany, and contemporary China), ignoring foreign patents is very useful for speeding up technology transfer from more advanced economies There is no doubt that copycats would benefit enormously from an absence of patent protection, but innovators would doubtless invest less capital in innovation if they could protect it. Germany, U.S., and Chinese copycats were about to free-ride on the license fees paid by English manufacturers to patent holders. If the English never established a patent law, then there would be nothing for them copy and the overall welfare of society would be reduced.

zozbot234 7y ago

> Most of the great German authors of the period had to hold other jobs to support themselves, which made completing works slow and halting. And yet, they were nonetheless able to be great authors. Now, contrast German authors of the 20th century, when copyright law was adopted. There's just no comparison.

azernik 7y ago
There are MANY things that changed in that period.

WalterBright 7y ago

Most authors today have to hold other jobs to support themselves. In fact it's likely the vast majority. I know several successful authors. None of them make enough off of the books to live on. But what they have done is leverage the status the books conferred into lucrative careers.

scoopertrooper 7y ago

> Especially for developing, backward economies (early-19th-century US, late-19th-century Germany, and contemporary China), ignoring foreign patents is very useful for speeding up technology transfer from more advanced economies There is no doubt that copycats would benefit enormously from an absence of patent protection, but innovators would doubtless invest less capital in innovation if they could protect it. Germany, U.S., and Chinese copycats were about to free-ride on the license fees paid by English manufacturers to patent holders. If the English never established a patent law, then there would be nothing for them copy and the overall welfare of society would be reduced.