IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/empleg/v11y2014i4p829-866.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Copyright Keeps Works Disappeared

Author

Listed:
  • Paul J. Heald

Abstract

A random sample of new books for sale on Amazon.com shows more books for sale from the 1880s than the 1980s. Why? This article presents new data on how copyright stifles the reappearance of works. First, a random sample of more than 2,000 new books for sale on Amazon.com is analyzed along with a random sample of almost 2,000 songs available on new DVDs. Copyright status correlates highly with absence from the Amazon shelf. Together with publishing business models, copyright law seems to deter distribution and diminish access. Further analysis of eBook markets, used books on Abebooks.com, and the Chicago Public Library collection suggests that no alternative marketplace for out‐of‐print books has yet developed. Data from iTunes and YouTube, however, tell a different story for older hit songs. The much wider availability of old music in digital form may be explained by the differing holdings in two important cases, Boosey & Hawkes v. Disney (music) and Random House v. Rosetta Stone (books).

Suggested Citation

  • Paul J. Heald, 2014. "How Copyright Keeps Works Disappeared," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 829-866, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:11:y:2014:i:4:p:829-866
    DOI: 10.1111/jels.12057
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12057
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jels.12057?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luis Aguiar & Zhizhong Chen, 2024. "Let that Sync in: The Effect of Music Reuse on Product Discovery," CESifo Working Paper Series 11249, CESifo.
    2. Kristelia García & James Hicks & Justin McCrary, 2020. "Copyright and Economic Viability: Evidence from the Music Industry," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 696-721, December.
    3. Ruth Towse & Hyojung Sun, 2016. "Researching song titles, product cycles and copyright in published music: problems, results and data sources," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-06-2016, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Jun 2016.
    4. Kaiser, Franziska & Cuntz, Alexander & Peukert, Christian, 2023. "Batman forever? The role of trademarks for reuse in the US comics industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    5. Alexander Cuntz & Paul J. Heald & Matthias Sahli, 2023. "Digitization and Availability of Artworks in Online Museum Collections," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 75, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    6. Boudreau, Kevin J. & Jeppesen, Lars Bo & Miric, Milan, 2022. "Profiting from digital innovation: Patents, copyright and performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    7. Alexander Cuntz & Matthias Sahli, 2024. "Intermediary liability and trade in follow-on innovation," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(1), pages 1-42, March.
    8. Jeremy Watson, 2017. "What is the Value of Re-use? Complementarities in Popular Music," Working Papers 17-15, NET Institute.
    9. Milan Miric & Lars Bo Jeppesen, 2020. "Does piracy lead to product abandonment or stimulate new product development?: Evidence from mobile platform‐based developer firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(12), pages 2155-2184, December.
    10. Christian Peukert & Margaritha Windisch, 2023. "The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age," CESifo Working Paper Series 10687, CESifo.
    11. Alexander Cuntz & Matthias Sahli, 2023. "Ars longa, vita brevis: The death of the creator and the impact on exhibitions and auction markets," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 76, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    12. Alexander Cuntz & Franziska Kaiser, 2020. "Batman forever? The economics of overlapping rights," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 61, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:11:y:2014:i:4:p:829-866. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1740-1461 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.