The Impact of Copyright Policy on Innovation in the Digital Era

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This project synthesizes and advances understanding about the impacts of copyright policy in the digital environment, particularly on innovation. There is a particular focus on identifying what empirical studies could shed light on some of the most contentious issues in copyright policy. Copyright directly impacts a broader range of industries than patents -- publishing, recording, films, games, and software among others -- as well as virtually all activity on the Internet. Four sets of outcomes are generated. The first is a set of commissioned papers on topics including a review of existing literature, an estimation and categorization of the scope of economic activity affected by copyright and its exception, a theoretical analysis of how copyright may stimulate or inhibit innovation, and at least one case study of the role of copyright and digital media in an industry undergoing disruptive change. The second is a public workshop on the topic of the impact of copyright policy on innovation. The third is the development of an online discussion forum. The final is a peer-reviewed report with recommendations for public and private funding agencies and institutions. Intellectual Merit: In contrast to scholarship on some other elements of the innovation system, theoretical analysis of and empirical research on the impact of copyright policy has been very limited. Research in the area is urgently needed, since copyright policy affects a large and diverse range of economic activity. It is critically important that we learn more, since the rules of copyright evolved for the most part in a pre-1990 era when the number of authors and publishers was small relative to the entire population, each instance of a creative work had a physical manifestation, the uses to which works could be put were known and relatively narrow, collaboration to produce a work generally required physical co-location or the repeated exchange of physical objects, and infringing copies were somewhat difficult to produce and distribute. As a result of the Internet, the number of authors approaches the size of the population, most works exist in non-physical form as a collection of bits, works can be readily excerpted, altered, and combined in limitless variety, reproduction and distribution are essentially cost-free, and collaboration can occur on a vast scale across differences of time and location. The project stimulates such research by convening a community of interested scholars and potential funders to evaluate recent and ongoing work, identify policy relevant topics for future research, and explore the potential for developing new datasources, such as the creation of a new litigation database, and new methods. Broader Impacts : The approach should stimulate the emergence of a multi-disciplinary community of scholars. A similar effort led to the growth of a community of patent scholars who are now very active participants in the patent reform debate. The result should be to create a better informed, more empirically and theoretically grounded, policymaking in the area of copyright law in the United States and globally.