Parallel of Economic and intellectual development and copyright laws

One reason I believe to be true is that copyright protection has paralleled with economic development and intelligence of more people. This is why copyright laws have developed to the state in which it is today. For example, Shakespeare created a piece that, as stated by Shaviro, could not have been produced during his time. Why? Because technology and intelligence of the masses were not in place to create a derivative of his piece or perhaps take his piece. That is why only original copyrighted material was protected. Yes, Sir Archduke blah blah blah could have done something to his work, but because of the limited number of people, Shakespeare or his colleagues and friends would have found out. There was increased transparency. Now during our time, things have become clouded as technology such as the internet has emerged and millions of people (relative to Shakespeare’s time) are comparatively much more educated than 400 or so years ago. It is not easy to keep in check all this activity that is going on in this world. Transparency into works is very clouded as we can take an example of someone illegally downloading music. Millions of people do this and we have no idea who these people may be. That is why copyright, I believe, has developed in a way that it is today.