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Originally Posted by avantman42
That data tells us that in the late 19th century, few publishers bothered with copyright. But it's now the early 21st century, and many things have changed.
One reason for the lack of interest in copyright protection may be that it was much harder to make copies in the late 19th century. Perhaps the publishers didn't really care much about copyright because the difficulty of copying would have more impact than the legal protection offered by copyright.
Of course, I don't know what went through the heads of late 19th century creators, but that's one possible explanation. I don't think the statistics you have given tell us anything about the modern era.
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Yes it was harder to make copies in the 19th century, but the first copyright laws were brought about precisely because people were making copies of books and then undercutting the original producers of the work. You can't compete with free, as it were.
I was thinking about comparing uploads between a Creative Commons type site and a site like Amazon, If you know of any data like that please link.