{"id":3390,"date":"2012-11-28T16:53:46","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T15:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/?p=3390"},"modified":"2012-11-28T16:55:14","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T15:55:14","slug":"paper-do-bad-things-happen-when-works-enter-the-public-domain-empirical-tests-of-copyright-term-extension-buccafusco-heald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/2012\/11\/paper-do-bad-things-happen-when-works-enter-the-public-domain-empirical-tests-of-copyright-term-extension-buccafusco-heald\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper: Do Bad Things Happen When Works Enter the Public Domain?: Empirical Tests of Copyright Term Extension (Buccafusco & Heald)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do Bad Things Happen When Works Enter the Public Domain Empirical Tests of Copyright Term Extension<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2130008<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The most interesting thing about this paper was the arguments put forward by the supporters of copyright extension. They are so distressingly bad that it seems pointless to empirically test them. Theoretical arguments are sufficient to show them to be faulty. Nevertheless, the authors carried out some experiments that show the obvious to be true.<\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/p>\n

According to the current copyright statute, in 2018, copyrighted works of music, <\/span>
\nfilm, and literature will begin to transition into the public domain. While this will <\/span>
\nprove a boon for users and creators, it could be disastrous for the owners of these <\/span>
\nvaluable copyrights. Accordingly, the next few years will witness another round of <\/span>
\naggressive lobbying by the film, music, and publishing industries to extend the <\/span>
\nterms of already-existing works. These industries, and a number of prominent <\/span>
\nscholars, claim that when works enter the public domain bad things will happen <\/span>
\nto them. They worry that works in the public domain will be underused, overused, <\/span>
\nor tarnished in ways that will undermine the works\u2019 cultural and economic value. <\/span>
\nAlthough the validity of their assertions turn on empirically testable hypotheses, <\/span>
\nvery little effort has been made to study them. \u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThis Article attempts to fill that gap by studying the market for audiobook <\/span>
\nrecordings of bestselling novels. Data from our research, including a novel <\/span>
\nhuman subjects experiment, suggest that the claims about the public domain are <\/span>
\nsuspect. Our data indicate that audio books made from public domain bestsellers <\/span>
\n(1913-22) are significantly more available than those made from copyrighted <\/span>
\nbestsellers (1923-32). In addition, our experimental protocol suggests that <\/span>
\nprofessionally made recordings of public domain and copyrighted books are of <\/span>
\nsimilar quality. Finally, while a low quality recording seems to lower a listener’s <\/span>
\nvaluation of the underlying work, our data do not suggest any correlation <\/span>
\nbetween that valuation and legal status of the underlying work. Accordingly, our <\/span>
\nresearch indicates that the significant costs of additional copyright protection for <\/span>
\nalready-existing works are not justified by the benefits claimed for it.\u00a0 These <\/span>
\nfindings will be crucially important to the inevitable congressional and judicial <\/span>
\ndebate over copyright term extension in the next few years.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do Bad Things Happen When Works Enter the Public Domain Empirical Tests of Copyright Term Extension https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2130008   The most interesting thing about this paper was the arguments put forward by the supporters of copyright extension. They are so distressingly bad that it seems pointless to empirically test them. Theoretical arguments are sufficient to show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1451,1898],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright-and-filesharing","category-economics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3393,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions\/3393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}