Z:gnu-www-ja-reevaluating-copyright--1f7d41-The copyright system developed/en

The copyright system developed along with the printing press. In the age of the printing press, it was unfeasible for an ordinary reader to copy a book. Copying a book required a printing press, and ordinary readers did not have one. What's more, copying in this way was absurdly expensive unless many copies were made&mdash;which means, in effect, that only a publisher could copy a book economically.