The Impact of Copyright Policy on Innovation in the Digital Era

该项目综合并推进了对数字环境中版权政策影响的理解，特别是对创新的影响。有一个特别的重点是确定哪些实证研究可以阐明版权政策中一些最具争议的问题。版权直接影响到比专利更广泛的行业——出版、录音、电影、游戏和软件等等——以及互联网上几乎所有的活动。生成四组结果。第一部分是一组委托撰写的论文，主题包括对现有文献的回顾，对受版权及其例外影响的经济活动范围的估计和分类，对版权如何刺激或抑制创新的理论分析，以及至少一个关于版权和数字媒体在经历颠覆性变革的行业中的作用的案例研究。第二个是关于版权政策对创新影响的公共研讨会。三是发展网络论坛。最后是一份同行评议的报告，向公共和私人资助机构和机构提出建议。智力价值：与研究创新系统其他要素的学者相比，对版权政策影响的理论分析和实证研究非常有限。由于版权政策影响着广泛而多样的经济活动，因此迫切需要对这一领域进行研究。至关重要的是，我们要了解更多，因为版权规则大部分是在1990年之前的时代发展起来的，当时作者和出版商的数量相对于整个人口来说是很小的，每一个创造性作品的实例都有一个物理表现，作品的用途是已知的，而且相对狭窄，合作生产一个作品通常需要物理上的共同定位或反复交换物理对象。而且侵权的拷贝在某种程度上很难制作和传播。互联网的结果是，作者的数量接近人口的规模，大多数作品以非物理形式存在，作为比特的集合，作品可以很容易地摘录，修改和无限组合，复制和分发基本上是免费的，并且可以在不同的时间和地点进行大规模的合作。该项目通过召集感兴趣的学者和潜在资助者社区来评估最近和正在进行的工作，确定未来研究的政策相关主题，并探索开发新数据源的潜力，例如创建新的诉讼数据库和新方法，从而促进此类研究。更广泛的影响：该方法应刺激多学科学者群体的出现。类似的努力导致了专利学者群体的成长，他们现在非常积极地参与专利改革的辩论。其结果应该是在美国和全球版权法领域创造一个更有见地、更有经验和理论基础的政策制定。

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.