German industrial expansion: blame it on copyright?

"The Real Reason for Germany's Industrial Expansion?" by Frank Thadeusz, published on Spiegel Online here, has already been the subject of this post on the IPKat by Mark Schweizer which has already attracted a fair degree of serious comment. The author's byline, "Did Germany experience rapid industrial expansion in the 19th century due to an absence of copyright law? A German historian argues that the massive proliferation of books, and thus knowledge, laid the foundation for the country's industrial might", tells you why it's so interesting. Enjoy!