The Case Against Intellectual Property

By Michele Boldrin, David K. Levine. 2002

416 citations recorded by the source corpus.

According to a common argument, the presence of strong intellectual property rights spurs innovation, which then leads to fiercer competition, higher economic growth and increasing benefits for the average consumers. We argue that, in the case of intellectual property rights, this has lead to misconceptions and abuses. Current legislation on intellectual property confuses the protection of property rights on objects in which ideas are embodied with the attribution of monopoly power on the idea itself and, furthermore, with restrictions on the usage of such goods on the part of the buyers. This implies that both patent and copyright laws should be dramatically altered. To back up our claim we provide theoretical arguments, even for the most extreme case in which goods are produced at a positive fixed cost and zero marginal cost.

Subfields: Accounting, Economics and Econometrics, Management of Technology and Innovation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bfa6e174695c100e8b77f5d6e988d2b2a773a699

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Accounting

In Economics and Econometrics

In Management of Technology and Innovation

Citations in the corpus

How to Best Ensure Remuneration for Creators in the Market for Music? Copyright and its Alternatives (2006, background): “Boldrin and Levine 2002). This literature will be reviewed more fully below. 11 Of course, the case for copyright to exist can also be justified on the existence of transactions costs. By allocating entitlement to authors (who are few) rather than users (who are many), copyright is designed to save ”
The value of intellectual property rights to firms and society (2007, background): “Boldrin and Levine (2002) believe that the optimal length of a patent/copyright may be zero.”
R&D and the Patent Premium (2008, neutral): “1 Related to these two arguments, Boldrin and Levine (2002)”
Consumer File Sharing of Motion Pictures (2007, background): “Using a different argument, Boldrin and Levine (2002) and Grgeta (2004) model competition with sunk costs and argue that, with certain assumptions, the decreasing costs of reproduction that result from file sharing make it easier, not more difficult, for the producer to recoup his or her investment…”
Measuring the Effect of File Sharing on Music Purchases* (2006, background): “See Boldrin and Levine (2002) and Klein, Lerner, and Murphy (2002) for a discussion of the effect of file sharing on copyright value.”