One of the fundamental principles of copyright law is the expression vs. idea dichotomy, which states that copyright does not protect ideas but only expressions of ideas. According to this principle, a person who merely contributes an idea to a copyright work cannot claim authorship or joint...

The previous research has not reached a consensus on whether the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) stimulates innovation, especially in the digital era. And due to the lack of exogenous variation of copyright statute, solid evidence on the causal effect of copyright protection is...

Accounts of the ‘copyright industries' suggest that strong intellectual property rights help creative firms. However, mounting evidence from sectors such as video game production and 3D printing indicate that business models based on open IP can also be profitable. This study investigates the...

The Copyright Act grants authors and users a set of entitlements in copyrightable works. It is questionable whether and to what extent authors and users can reallocate these rights by entering into legally enforceable contracts. The Seventh Circuit’s historic decision in ProCD, Inc v...

Modern copyright law is based upon a theory: increase copyright protection and you increase the number of creative works available to society. This theory has been the driving force behind an economic vision that has expanded, beyond all recognition, the original law created by the Statute of...

At various dates between 1991-2002, nineteen OECD countries extended the duration of copyright, typically from the author's life plus 50 years to author's life plus 70 years. We study the impact of the extensions on the production of movies. We find that the extensions were associated with an...