Overview of Economics of Intellectual Property in EM
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Where does the literature say IP works and does not work?
Used Car Analogy
- Summary: Rental car companies are willing to pay a price for a new car (a durable good) that includes the resale value of the car because that portion will be recuperated when the rental car has finished its rental life. Similarly, infinitely durable intellectual products like books could be sold at a price that includes the project value of copies being made from it. Thus, the buyer of a used rental car indirectly pays the car company and the user of the copied book has his usage indirectly paid to the author (likely factor in higher price of published material for library purchase). (Liebowitz 1985, 947)
- "Ford sells new cars to both private individuals and automobile rental companies such as Hertz. These cars are durable goods, lasting for many years. Often for individuals, and almost always for the car rental companies, the cars are resold before their useful lives are finished. The price that Hertz is willing to pay for a car depends not only on the value of a car in the car rental business but also on the resale value of the car when Hertz is finished renting it out. When Hertz buys new cars it includes the expected discounted value of the resale price of the car in the price it is willing to pay. The purchaser of the used car from Hertz does not pay anything directly to Ford, but Ford received indirect payment when it sold the new car in anticipation of this later resale. Thus direct payment is not necessary in order for Ford to appropriate revenues from future users of its used products over the useful lives of these products."
- "The same type of analysis can be made for intellectual products, which are capable of being used over and over again regardless of their particular physical manifestation. The copyright owner sells a certain number of authorized copies, from which unauthorized copies are made. The users of unauthorized copies, like the buyers of used cars, may be indirectly paying the copyright owner for their unauthorized copies if the owners of authorized copies take the "resale" value of the authorized copies into account when they purchase them. Therefore, the impact of copying on copyright owner revenues is unclear, as are any welfare implications."
When IP does work
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When IP doesn't work
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What are the other incentives mentioned by the literature?
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Is there data on "how much of an increase of the tendency towards enclosure"?
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How much does the EM field have patented?
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Has this movement increased over time?
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Analysis of why this matters to the specific field
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