Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right: Towards a New Copyright Protection System

Pedro Letai
(IE Law School, María de Molina, 31, bis, 28006, Madrid, Spain)

Abstract: Legal scholars and economists often debate in the literature about current terms of copyright protection. Those terms seem unwarranted and disproportionate, leading to a market failure on the effective life of works. The de lege ferenda proposal which is here formulated, based on a simple system of short and renewable protection periods, find serious benefits from both economic and social perspective. Major parts of our cultural heritage have been digitalized, but are not accessible on line to the general public because of excessive copyright protection. The effective exploitable life of the vast majority of artistic creations is brief, and the question that arises is how we can turn that deadweight loss into profit, with incentive for creators and least social cost. It then seems logical that after that period of exploitation works should enter the public domain. Furthermore, the proposed system provides greater protection to the original authors besides eventual intermediaries as rights holders, with a revertible formula which may strength their position at the time of negotiating over the ownership of their works. With the technological advances of the digital age, economic analysis of copyright should no longer be concerned on incentivizing creation, which in itself is already unstoppable, but to facilitate the dissemination of works. That contents’ diffusion would be hugely advantageous for the society and, moreover, for the copyright holders who, ideally, should remain the authors themselves.

Key words: copyright law; intellectual property; law & economics; public policy; behavioral economics

JEL code: K11