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Does Copyright Piracy Pay? The Effects of U.S. International Copyright Laws on the Market for Books, 1790-1920

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  • B. Zorina Khan

Abstract

Does the lack of international copyrights benefit or harm developing countries? I examine the effects of U.S. copyright piracy during a period when the U.S. was itself a developing country. U.S. statutes since 1790 protected the copyrights of American citizens, but until 1891 deemed the works of foreign citizens to be in the public domain. In 1891, the laws were changed to allow foreigners to obtain copyright protection in the United States if certain conditions were met. Thus, this episode in American history provides us with a convenient way of investigating the consequences of international copyright piracy. My analysis is based on copyright registrations, information on authors, book titles and prices, financial data from the accounts of a major publishing company, and lawsuits regarding copyright questions. These data are used to investigate the welfare effects of widespread infringement of foreign works on American publishers, writers, and the public. The results suggest that the United States benefited from piracy and that the choice of copyright regime was endogenous to the level of economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • B. Zorina Khan, 2004. "Does Copyright Piracy Pay? The Effects of U.S. International Copyright Laws on the Market for Books, 1790-1920," NBER Working Papers 10271, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10271
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    Cited by:

    1. Jin-Hyuk Kim, 2013. "A simple model of copyright levies: implications for harmonization," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(6), pages 992-1013, December.
    2. Christine Greenhalgh & Mark Rogers, 2007. "The Value of Intellectual Property Rights to Firms," Economics Series Working Papers 319, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Christian Handke, 2013. "Empirical evidence on copyright," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse & Christian Handke (ed.), Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy, chapter 22, pages 249-261, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Stan J. Liebowitz, 2016. "Paradise Lost or Fantasy Island? Voluntary Payments by American Publishers to Authors Not Protected by Copyright," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 549-567.
    5. Ryan Safner, 2023. "Honor among thieves: how nineteenth century American pirate publishers simulated copyright protection," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 119-141, March.
    6. Sanz, Esteve, 2015. "Copyright indicators and the costs of symbolic production: The cultural dimension of telecommunications policy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 208-217.
    7. Yi Qian, 2014. "Counterfeiters: Foes or Friends? How Counterfeits Affect Sales by Product Quality Tier," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2381-2400, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General
    • N0 - Economic History - - General

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