This project synthesizes and advances understanding about the impacts of copyright policy in the digital environment, particularly on innovation. There is a particular focus on identifying what empirical studies could shed light on some of the most contentious issues in copyright policy. Copyright directly impacts a broader range of industries than patents -- publishing, recording, films, games, and software among others -- as well as virtually all activity on the Internet.
Four sets of outcomes are generated. The first is a set of commissioned papers on topics including a review of existing literature, an estimation and categorization of the scope of economic activity affected by copyright and its exception, a theoretical analysis of how copyright may stimulate or inhibit innovation, and at least one case study of the role of copyright and digital media in an industry undergoing disruptive change. The second is a public workshop on the topic of the impact of copyright policy on innovation. The third is the development of an online discussion forum. The final is a peer-reviewed report with recommendations for public and private funding agencies and institutions.
Intellectual Merit: In contrast to scholarship on some other elements of the innovation system, theoretical analysis of and empirical research on the impact of copyright policy has been very limited. Research in the area is urgently needed, since copyright policy affects a large and diverse range of economic activity.
It is critically important that we learn more, since the rules of copyright evolved for the most part in a pre-1990 era when the number of authors and publishers was small relative to the entire population, each instance of a creative work had a physical manifestation, the uses to which works could be put were known and relatively narrow, collaboration to produce a work generally required physical co-location or the repeated exchange of physical objects, and infringing copies were somewhat difficult to produce and distribute. As a result of the Internet, the number of authors approaches the size of the population, most works exist in non-physical form as a collection of bits, works can be readily excerpted, altered, and combined in limitless variety, reproduction and distribution are essentially cost-free, and collaboration can occur on a vast scale across differences of time and location.
The project stimulates such research by convening a community of interested scholars and potential funders to evaluate recent and ongoing work, identify policy relevant topics for future research, and explore the potential for developing new datasources, such as the creation of a new litigation database, and new methods.
Broader Impacts : The approach should stimulate the emergence of a multi-disciplinary community of scholars. A similar effort led to the growth of a community of patent scholars who are now very active participants in the patent reform debate. The result should be to create a better informed, more empirically and theoretically grounded, policymaking in the area of copyright law in the United States and globally.
In this project, designed to develop an agenda for empirical research on copyright policy issues, a committee of economists, legal scholars, technologists, and members from the creative industries appointed by the chairman of the National Research Council - Commissioned research papers on what is known about the economics of copyright, how digitization has affected the music, film, and book and scientific publishing industries, and how creative works are treated in the national economic accounts; - Held three meetings and a public workshop with individuals from government, the NGO community, and private industry; and - Conducted an online discussion forum on copyright policy issues. Using material from these sources, the committee prepared a report, Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy. The report provides a strong rationale for a substantial research effort directed at providing an evidence base for copyright policy, outlines an agenda of topics, and discusses promising approaches (e.g., historical case studies, international comparisons, sectoral comparisons, quantitative data analysis, and experiments and surveys). It contains an extensive discussion of the data requirements of such an effort, identifies the potential sources of such data, and considers how access to them might be obtained. It acknowledges the fact that many of the most important data are proprietary and facilitating access will require the cooperation of private stakeholders. It calls on government and philanthropic funders to try to mobilize that cooperation and finance the creation of a robust data infrastructure. The study committee presumes that the availability of funding and data would readily attract capable investigators with diverse research interests and approaches. In those circumstances there would be no lack of promising research proposals. Instead, the greater challenge is to reverse the marked decline in foundation funding in the field that has occurred in the last few years and to enlist the interest of federal government agencies beyond the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) -- for example, the National Endowments, the Copyright Office, National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA), and perhaps even the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). With support of research sponsors, perhaps pooling funds to help create a data infrastructure, holders of proprietary data may be induced to cooperate. Members of Congress, especially those with jurisdiction over copyright legislation and agency budgets, are also an important audience for the committee's message. Much will change if policymakers begin to ask of advocates and critics of copyright strengthening and vigorous enforcement, "Where is the research-based evidence?"
