The Real Reason for Germany's Industrial Expansion?

Is lack of copyright protections in the early 1800s The Real Reason for Germany's Industrial Expansion?

I don't know enough about copyright law in Germany and England in the early 1800s to take a strong position one way or the other on the claims in the article. But if it holds up it does seem to say something about the value of an open internet where knowledge, technical knowledge in particular, is widely available at very low cost.