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

Counterfeiters: Foes or Friends? How Do Counterfeits Affect Different Product Quality Tiers?

“…A commonly cited mechanism is network effects, where the consumer utility of a product is an increasing function in the size of the user base. This argument has been made frequently for software and book copyright cases (Takeyama 1991, Conner and Rumelt 1991, Khan 2004. Others suggest that imitation could serve as a signal for the original product's or idea's high quality (Castro et al 2008, Biais andPerotti 2008), driving positive consumer attention.…”

The value of intellectual property rights to firms and society

“…This is not a new issue; for example, in the 19 th century, US book publishers were quick to copy new Charles Dickens' books since the US was not a signature to international copyright agreements until 1891(Khan, 2004).…”

Digital copying and the supply of sound recordings

“…4 Studies on other types of changes in copyright strength established no significant effect on the supply of creative works or on the number of suppliers. Khan (2004) finds that the US International Copyright Act of 1891 has had no substantial impact on the number of full-time authors. Scherer (2008) finds no substantial change in market entry by composers with music-related copyright extensions in Europe between 1709 and 1850.…”