Landes and Posner (1989)
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Source Details
Landes and Posner (1989) | |
Title: | An economic analysis of copyright law |
Author(s): | Landes, W., Posner, R. A. |
Year: | 1989 |
Citation: | Landes, W .M., & Posner, R. A. (1989). An economic analysis of copyright law. Journal of Legal Studies, 18(2), 325-363. |
Link(s): | Definitive , Open Access |
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Linked by: | Akerlof, Hahn and Litan (2002), Andrés (2006a), Arai and Kinukawa (2014), Baker and Cunningham (2006), Breyer (1970), Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (2006), Charles River Associates (2013), Depoorter and Walker (2013), Harbaugh and Khemka (2010), Kretschmer (2012), Landes and Lichtman (2003), Landes and Posner (2003a), Miceli and Adelstein (2006), Montoro-Pons and Cuadrado-García (2006), Mustonen (2005), Oliar, Pattison and Powell (2014), Pollock (2009), Tor and Oliar (2002), Towse (1999), Troll Covery (2005), Waelde and MacQueen (2004), Watt (2009), Yoon (2002), Zhu, Madnick and Siegel (2008) |
About the Data | |
Data Description: | The article is based on an equation model the authors propose to develop and illustrate their points. It is a theoretical exercise and there is no collection of data as such. |
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Cross Country Study?: | No |
Comparative Study?: | No |
Literature review?: | No |
Government or policy study?: | No |
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Abstract
Intellectual property is a natural field for economic analysis of law, and copyright is an important form of intellectual property. Yet while there are good introductios to the economics of copyright laws, and a number of excellent articles on the economics of copying (as opposed to coryright law), no article examines the field of copyright as a whole, discussing the evolution and major doctrines in the law from an economic standpoint. This article, which is in the spirit of our recent articles of trademark law, tries to fill this gap, although the field is so vast, that our analysis cannot be exhaustive. As in most of our work, we are particularly interested in postivive analyisis, and specifically the question to what extent copyright law can be explained as a means for promoting efficient allocation of resources.
Main Results of the Study
- Fair use, if too broadly interpreted, can sap the incentive to develop innovative market mechanisms that reduce the transaction costs and make economic exchanges between copyright holders and users feasible.* The number of users of copyrighted music makes individual negotiations with copyright holders. This problem is eliminated when ASCAP acquires non-exclusive rights from copyright holders and offers a blanket license to users for an annual fee; this allows users to perform any music in ASCAP's repertory.* Since performance distributions from ASCAP are an important part of composers' incomes, a fair use exception for performane would greatly reduce the pecuniary incentive to compose music.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
Copyrights should be time-limited to save on tracing costs. They also advance arguments in favour of the present term (the author's lifetime plus 50), which may be considered long and arbitrary by some.
Coverage of Study
Datasets
Sample size: | Not stated"Not stated" is not a number. |
Level of aggregation: | Not stated |
Period of material under study: | Not stated |