Preface: In 1776, Adam Smith diagnosed an oversupply in “that unprosperous race of men” called men of letters: “…their numbers are every-where so great as commonly to reduce the price of their labour to a very paltry recompense.” (The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Ch. 10) By the...

Market failure is a slippery economic term, covering instances where markets are inefficient or missing altogether, i.e. the consumer pays over the odds or cannot obtain a desirable good. Bärwolff argues convincingly that a combination of intellectual property rights and contractual licensing...