From Few and Expensive to Many and Cheap: The British Book Market 1800–1890

Summary:

• The average reader had more options in the later half of the 19th century as opposed to the beginning of the 19th century and before that. This had to do largely with the fact that new cheaper printing methods had emerged that made it cheaper and easier to produce large amounts of text at a time. As a result, the people in the later half of the 19th century were, as the author of the book puts it, "swimming in a sea of print"
• The development of the railway system allowed for bulkier goods such as paper to be transported across the UK in a matter of hours or days. This contributed to the availability of books that was continuously growing in the 19th century.
• Copyrights allowed for the writer to become more commercial and make *some* money from their work. The Copyright Act of 1842 extended the copyright year to 42 years or 7 years after the author's death, whichever was longer.
• Cheaper ways of producing books such as chapbooks and serial publishing became popular as a result of the expensive price of books. Chapbooks and serial publishing were geared towards the poorer classes even though authors such as Dickens emerged from it (serial publishing specifically)

Comments:

• I find it interesting how far the copyright rules have evolved. At first there were barely any copyright, which turned into some copyright rules, which turned into the copyright rules we have now.
• I also found it interesting how the commercialization of Christmas came about, simply through a text such as Christmas cards at first and then it became this huge commercial holiday it is now.

Question

• I wonder what caused the shift in the need for copyright laws? What changed socially that humans felt the need to protect their artistic work under law?