What we know, what we don’t know and what policy-makers would like us to know about the economics of copyright

Governments the world over are looking for evidence on the economic effects of copyright law, the more so since the increased emphasis in government growth policy on the role of the creative industries has led to the justification of copyright as a stimulus to the economy. This article summarises the current economic evidence relevant for copyright policy and discusses why it falls short of what is wanted

The Singer or the Song? Developments in Performers' Rights from the Perspective of a Cultural Economist

Over the last century, performers gradually acquired statutory protection of their economic and moral rights. These rights are not copyright in the legal sense but neighboring rights and until recently, they were mainly remuneration rights that are collectively administered. With the WPPT (WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty), performers now have individual exclusive rights for digital performances; this leads to the question: what has motivated this change – is it a change in the perception of the value of performer or a change brought about by the changing technology of copying or, indeed, a change that reflects different economic costs and benefits? The paper discusses the role of copyright law as an incentive to performers and asks if the economic role of the performer is so different from that of the author. The conclusion is that a complex interaction of the legal regulations, economic conditions and institutional arrangements for administering these new rights will determine the outcome

Human capital and artists’ labour markets

It is argued that human capital theory applies only weakly to artists’ decisions about investment in schooling and training and about occupational choice. However, the same can be said about the sorting model. What is lacking in cultural economics is an understanding of talent and creativity, what economic factors motivate artists and how creativity can be encouraged as part of government cultural policy. Bringing social and cultural capital into the equation do not seem to add much in the way of understanding artists’ labour markets. A novel argument is made that the reproducibility of works of art in combination with copyright law alters the established view that human capital cannot be separated from labour, in this case that of the artist

Economics of Copyright Collecting Societies and Digital Rights: Is There a Case for a Centralised Digital Copyright Exchange?

Copyright collecting societies have attracted economists’ attention for over 30 years and the attention of government regulators for even longer. They have typically been accepted by economists and by courts of law as necessary for reducing transaction costs and enabling copyright to work. The advent of digitization has led to renewed interest in the topic and to the view that though new technologies offer the possibility of improved rights management, collecting societies are not responding sufficiently to these opportunities. That view was evident in recent enquiries into the role of copyright in the digital age in the UK, which proposed the formation of a Digital Copyright Exchange (DCE) that would promote online digital trade. This paper evaluates the case for the DCE in the light of what economists know about collective rights management

Copyright auctions and the asset value of a copyright work

Research on the economic history of copyright and music publishing turned up an unusual source of data on the value of copyrights, namely detailed accounts of public auctions of musical items that were held in London between 1794 and 1960 of, inter alia, copyrights and the engraved plates from which musical works were printed. The standard contract between song writers/composers and music publishers in the 19th century bought out all rights and therefore the sale of the plates was also the sale of the copyright to the work, enabling the new owner to print and distribute the work. The sales also facilitated entry into and exit from the industry. This paper describes the historical circumstances of copyright and the market for printed music and presents some of the more notable data, with calculations of their present day values. Though insufficient for a full statistical analysis, the paper provides some hard evidence of the asset value of copyright in musical works as perceived by the music publishers of those times. The paper also suggests a basis for further research

Economics of Music Publishing: Copyright and the Market

The paper argues that the paradigmatic shift from the sale of printed music to exploiting and managing musical rights that took place in music publishing during the early years of the 20th century was due to the changing market rather than to changes in copyright law. On the one hand, copyright law was ineffectual in controlling piracy throughout the 19th century and on the other hand, performing rights were ignored by music publishers for over 70 years; these points suggest that copyright was not the main reason behind the success of the industry. Rather than leading entrepreneurially (the current view of dynamism in the creative industries), publishers ‘followed the money’ and adapted their business models only when new streams of income from new forms of exploitation through sound recording, broadcasting and film became available as a result of exogenous technical progress. Publishers were locked-in to sales revenue as their business model, though when switching to the new business model of rights management took place, the costs seem not to have been greatly significant. The paper takes an historical approach to the development of music publishing viewed through the lens of present day issues. The research has resonance for the transition from sales to licensing digital works that is taking place in the creative industries today and puts into perspective the relative significance of market forces and copyright law in the process

The economics of copyright law: a stocktake of the literature

This article is a survey of publications by economists writing on copyright law. It begins with a general overview of how economists analyse these questions; the distinction is made between the economics of copying and the economic aspects of copyright law as analysed in law and economics. It then continues with sections on research on the effects of copying and downloading and the effects of unauthorised use (‘piracy’) and ends with an overall evaluation of the economics of copyright in the light of recent technological changes. Economists have always been, and still are, somewhat sceptical about copyright and question what alternatives there are to it. On balance, most accept the role of copyright law in the creative industries while urging caution about its becoming too strong. And although European authors’ rights are different in legal terms from the Anglo-American copyright, the economic analysis of these laws is essentially the same

Copyright Reversion in the Creative Industries: Economics and Fair Remuneration

The European Commission proposal to harmonize fair remuneration in Member States in EC ‘on copyright in the Digital Single Market’ COM(2016) 593 final) included the proposal to harmonise a right to contract reversion. Fair remuneration is an ambiguous concept for economists: some EC documents imply the policy is required for efficiency purposes, in others purely for equity reasons. Copyright to an extent attempts to deal with both and also at times confuses the two. This article tries to disentangle these issues. Research commissioned by the European Union (EU) prior to the proposal concentrated on the legal aspects rather than on the impact on markets. It would have benefitted from recent work in law and economics and in economics on reversionary rights as well as to a well-established body of research in cultural economics on labour markets of authors and performers in the cultural and media industries. That work shows both the variety of influences on motivation, incentives and contracts for creators, as well as exposing the difficulties of empirical research in this area. The article discusses work that has been done in economics dealing with copyright contracts and with reversion and considers the contribution studies on labour markets in the creative industries could make to the policy proposals on fair remuneration for creators and performers

Copyright and Creativity: cultural economics for the 21st century

Inaugural lecture for the personal Chair in Economics of Creative Industries, Faculty of History and ArtsThe title of this lecture is ‘Copyright and Creativity: cultural economics for the 21st century’ and the title of my chair is Economics of Creative Industries, so I obviously think I have something to say about creativity. However, creativity is one of those words that has become completely debased by overuse: anything and everything is apparently ‘creative’ nowadays – not just industries and the economy but also advertising, salesmanship, management consultancy – even accountancy! And of course, artists are creative but then so are children and according to UNESCO we are all creative. Overuse has rendered it devoid of meaning – so, is it even worth investigating, especially from the economic point of view? The ‘creative economy’ has become a buzz word, a slogan, something that is unquestionably true. And it is easy to see why Ministries of Culture have embraced it so whole-heartedly: it empowers them to be in the forefront of the quest for economic growth, just as that other buzz word ‘the economic impact of the arts’ did 20 years ago. But Ministries of Economic Affairs are also on the bandwagon. So, if I am scornful of the endless appeal to the creative economy, why choose this theme? Well, the reason is that if these terms ‘creative economy’ and ‘creative industries’ are to be taken seriously (and governments from here to Uruguay have policies for them), economists should be capable of analysing them, especially cultural economists. Put simply: if the creative economy is such a good thing, can an economy be made more creative and if so, how? - do we know how to create creativity? Is it something that is amenable to social engineering? These questions have to be answered if we are to believe that government policies can promote the creative economy