Without exception, they relented
and adopted the new technologies to their considerable
commercial advantage. It is no surprise, therefore, that
publishers were hesitant to adopt the Internet, POD, and e-
publishing technologies. The surprise lies in the relative
haste with which they came to adopt it, egged on by authors
and booksellers.
IV. Intellectual Pirates and Intellectual Property
Despite the technological breakthroughs that coalesced to form
the modern printing press - printed books in the 17th and 18th
centuries were derided by their contemporaries as inferior to
their laboriously hand-made antecedents and to the incunabula.
One is reminded of the current complaints about the new media
(Internet, e-books), its shoddy workmanship, shabby
appearance, and the rampant piracy.
The first decades following the invention of the printing
press, were, as the Encyclopedia Britannica puts it "a
restless, highly competitive free for all ... (with) enormous
vitality and variety (often leading to) careless work".
There were egregious acts of piracy - for instance, the
illicit copying of the Aldine Latin "pocket books", or the
all-pervasive piracy in England in the 17th century (a direct
result of over-regulation and coercive copyright monopolies).
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