Corrigan, Ray and Rogers, Mark
(2005).
The economics of copyright.
World Economics, 6(3),
pp. 153–174.
Abstract
The copyright industries — such as music, film, software and publishing — occupy a significant and growing share of economic activity. Current copyright law protects the creator for up to 70 years after their death, significantly longer than patent protection (20 years after invention). Copyright law aims to balance the incentive to create new work against the costs associated with high prices and restricted access to this work. This paper reviews the economic issues behind copyright and how these are challenged by changes in technology and market structure. While economics provides a powerful conceptual framework for understanding the trade-offs involved, the paper argues that our empirical knowledge base is very weak. Much more empirical analysis is needed to understand the impacts of changes to copyright legislation. Without such analysis, policy and legal debates will continue to be based largely on anecdote and rhetoric.
| Item Type: |
Journal Article
|
| Copyright Holders: |
2005 World Economics |
| ISSN: |
1468-1838 |
| Extra Information: |
Mark Rogers is economics fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University. Ray Corrigan is a Senior Lecturer in Technology at the Open University. |
| Keywords: |
copyright; economics |
| Academic Unit/Department: |
Mathematics, Computing and Technology > Communication and Systems |
| Item ID: |
10299 |
| Depositing User: |
Ray Corrigan
|
| Date Deposited: |
21 Jan 2008 |
| Last Modified: |
26 Jan 2011 10:25 |
| URI: |
http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/10299 |
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