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

Name: Does Copyright Piracy Pay? The Effects of U.S. International Copyright Laws on the Market for Books, 1790-1920
Cite: Working paper, National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2004; http://www.nber.org/papers/w10271, accessed June 18, 2011
Year: 2004
Bluebook cite: B. Zorina Khan, â€œDoes Copyright Piracy Pay? The Effects of U.S. International Copyright Laws on the Market for Books, 1790-1920â€ (working paper, National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2004), http://www.nber.org/papers/w10271, accessed June 18, 2011.
Author: B. Zorina Khan
URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w10271
Item Type: article
Summary: Paper examines the effect of international copyright laws on the US publishing market in the nineteenth century, when the US was itself a developing economy, and international copyrights were routinely subject to â€œpiracyâ€. Author briefly compares US policies toward patents (easily implemented) with those of copyrights (see id. at 26). Author attributes difficulty of implementing copyright reforms to nineteenth century political atmosphere, which emphasized â€œthe objectives of the Constitution in promoting the progress of social welfare,â€ including easy public access to literature. Id. at 29.