I recently came a cross a new research paper through CNN.com written by Paul J Heald from the University of Illinois. The research paper studied a variety of different effects of copyright protection, including the effect of copyright on the free market. Heald tackled the popular argument currently put forward by most of the music and media industry that copyright is vital on the free market because it promotes innovation. However, the research in paper indicates that copyright’s utility in promoting and protecting innovation has a diminishing return; as the years progress it does less and less for the protection of innovation. In fact, the study actually shows that as time goes on copyright has an adverse effect of keeping new material off of market shelves, because it creates a disincentive for the artists and authors create, especially when it comes to books and music.
The findings in Heald’s paper shows that after the initial introduction of a piece of music or book into a market, it seemingly disappears from public view until it falls out of copyright. Thus, keeping a piece of music or literature under copyright for long periods of time serves as a disservice to both fans as well as the content publishers. This could be arguably be the situation in the UK where copyright lasts for a period of up to 70 years after the death of the author. From what I understand, Heald isn’t preaching against copyright, but is rather submitting reasoned arguments against excessive and seemingly unnecessary copyright. From what I’ve read so far his viewpoint is very agreeable and he has a number of very interesting data to support his view.
Sources:
Article:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/09/copyright-actually-keeps-many-books-off-the-market-study-says/
Research Paper:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2290181
