Category Empirical Research

Digital Piracy and the Perception of Price Fairness: Evidence from a Field Experiment

[Anna Kukla-Gryz, Joanna Tyrowicz & Michał Krawczyk] Abstract: We study a relationship between perceived price fairness and digital piracy. In a large-scale field experiment on customers of a leading ebook store, we employ the Bayesian truth serum to elicit the information on acquiring books from unauthorized sources (often referred to as digital piracy). We provide empirical evidence in support of the conjecture that willingness to “pirate” is associated with having experienced subjective overpricing. We propose and verify the relevance of two mechanisms behind this link: reactance theory and moral cleansing/licensing. The results indicate that pricing policy perceived as fair may reduce the scope for digital piracy.

Webinar: Presentation of the MedsPaL Database by AMINA MAILLARD, Medicines Patent Pool

[Webinar - Sep 15, 2020; 10:00am] MedsPaL is the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP)’s patents and licenses database, a free resource provides information on the intellectual property status of selected patent essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The database includes patent and licensing data covering over 8,500 national patent applications on 110 priority medicines (220 formulations) in more than 130 LMICs. In March 2020, it was expanded to provide patent information on treatments currently being tested for COVID-19. The database is available at www.medspal.org.

Survey Data from Canada, Mexico and Taiwan added to User Rights Database

In 2017, PIJIP released the User Rights Database, a novel, survey-based dataset, which measures changes to countries’ laws on copyright exceptions over time. Last spring we have added three additional countries to the dataset – Canada, Mexico and Taiwan. This post introduces the new data and discusses how it compares to the data from the original set of countries.

Contribution of piracy to the purchase of copyrighted contents

[Heesob Nam] Piracy is a political term used to label to every unauthorized use of copyrighted content as “illegal looting,” and to justify strengthened copyright enforcement . The copyright industries, including MPAA, BSA and IFPI, have estimated huge economic harms caused by piracy. Yet some literature show piracy having a positive effect on legal purchases of cultural products. Here is one example, which comes from a Korean public agency.

Creative Commons Interview with Dr. Lucie Guibault: What Scientists Should Know About Open Access

[Interview by Victoria Heath and Brigitte Vézina]...When time is of the essence, like now with the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific research results must be made available as soon as possible so that other scientists, policymakers and the general population can rely on sound scientific data in their decision-making process. Contrary to the traditional publishing model, which puts scientific publications behind a paywall or puts a 6 to 12-month embargo on self-archiving (depositing scholarly research in an online repository or open archive), open access allows for immediate, worldwide access to scientific and scholarly publications.

Why South Africa Should Resist US Pressure to Extend Copyright Terms

[Paul Heald] The current term of copyright in South Africa is life-of-the-author plus 50 years. But the US is pressuring South Africa to extend the term to life-plus-70. Since the US is a net exporter of copyrighted media, like songs, books, and movies, US copyrights earn billions in revenue yearly. The US wants to prolong this trade imbalance as long as possible and deny foreigners free access to older US works.

The Conflicts between Copyright and the Norms of Online Re-Creations: An Empirical Analysis

[Khanuengnit Khaosaeng] Abstract: As a fundamental principle, by granting exclusive rights, copyright provides economic incentives to encourage authors and artists to express their ideas, and in that process, create a new work. As a general rule, when using a protected work, a person needs permission from the copyright holder of such work. However, this article finds that: economic interests provided by copyright are not the primary incentives for authors to create a work; and due to some obstacles, people cannot conform to the copyright rule that permission to use a copyright work is required. These conclusions are supported by an original empirical study on the social norms concerning the practice of online re-creations.

Are Contracts Enough? An Empirical Study of Author Rights in Australian Publishing Agreements

[Joshua Yuvaraj and Rebecca Giblin] Abstract: A majority of the world’s nations grant authors statutory reversion rights: entitlements to reclaim their copyrights in certain circumstances, such as their works becoming unavailable for purchase. In Australia (as in the UK) we have no such universal protections, leaving creator rights to be governed entirely by their contracts with investors. But is this enough? We investigate that question in the book industry context via an exploratory study of publishing contracts sourced from the archive of the Australian Society of Authors.

What Happens When Books Enter the Public Domain?

[Jacob Flynn, Rebecca Giblin, and François Petitjean] Copyright’s underuse hypothesis is simple: that, unless publishers are assured of exclusive rights in older works, they won’t continue to invest in making them available. This of course contradicts a core tenet of classical economic theory, that investors will continue to produce copies of books (or anything else) so long as they can expect to get back more than they put in... We have now carried out the first international test of the underuse hypothesis – across the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And, since we were analysing availability of works across jurisdictions, that enabled us, also for the first time, to examine how the availability of identical works differed according to copyright status.

University Patenting: Is Private Law Serving Public Values?

[Lisa Larrimore Ouellette and Rebecca Weires] Abstract: ... What return does the public receive for the tax dollars spent on R&D, primarily at universities? Does privatizing this research through patent law in fact serve public values? From this social welfare perspective, could the Bayh–Dole framework be improved? In this symposium contribution, we seek to tackle these questions, including by identifying the key empirical questions that must be resolved to answer them. In short, we conclude the benefits of university patenting may justify the costs where licensees need exclusivity to undertake the costs of commercialization. For the substantial portion of university patenting that is not necessary for commercialization, evidence of other plausible benefits is not yet sufficient to justify the costs. Much of the data needed to investigate these plausible benefits — and related costs — rests in the hands of universities and federal grant agencies.

Moving Towards a New Copyright Bargain: Lecture by Rebecca Giblin

Copyright laws are beset from every angle. They're criticized for failing to recognize and reward creators, for blocking new forms of creativity, for limiting access to knowledge and for causing culture to be lost. Copyright's fundamental structures were settled before the digital era, but are cemented in by outdated and effectively unamendable treaties. In this public lecture, Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow Rebecca Giblin illuminates a path forward to a new copyright bargain: one that, by taking authors' interests seriously, would simultaneously reclaim lost culture, promote access to knowledge and help authors get paid - all within those unamendable treaty frameworks.