Copyright protection standards and authors’ time allocation

For centuries, it was necessary for performers to be present in “real time” to supply their services, such as music, dance, or drama. Labor time and human skill and capital were inextricably related. “Reproducibility”—the ability to make copies of human services that are adequate substitutes for “li...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Industrial and corporate change 2006-12, Vol.15 (6), p.995-1011
Main Authors: Watt, Richard, Towse, Ruth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audience
Authors
Commercial law
Consumers
Copyright
Demand
Earnings
Economies of scale
Equilibrium
Income
Intellectual property
Labor market
Labor supply
Musical performances
Musicians & conductors
New technology
Profitability
Profits
Protection
Reproducibility
Royalties
Singers
Studies
Time
Time management
Willingness to pay
Writers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:For centuries, it was necessary for performers to be present in “real time” to supply their services, such as music, dance, or drama. Labor time and human skill and capital were inextricably related. “Reproducibility”—the ability to make copies of human services that are adequate substitutes for “live” performance—has meant performers need not be present to supply their services, which can be recorded and supplied with economies of scale. Consumers do not need the live performer to be present to obtain their services. Demand for performers has therefore fallen. The same is, of course, true for non-performing authors. Such a scenario must have altered the balance of incentives for authors for how they ultimately decide to spend their time. The choices between working on producing copyrighted material (which will earn them income through royalties over the duration of the copyright), working for “spot” wages (either in related or in unrelated activities), and to take leisure must be closely related to the ability of copyright law to guarantee future income from copyrights. This article considers this situation in terms of a formal model of time allocation.
ISSN:0960-6491
1464-3650
DOI:10.1093/icc/dtl023