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Does Copyright Affect Reuse? Evidence from Google Books and Wikipedia

Author

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  • Abhishek Nagaraj

    (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720)

Abstract

While digitization has greatly increased the reuse of knowledge, this study shows how these benefits might be mitigated by copyright restrictions. I use the digitization of in-copyright and out-of-copyright issues of Baseball Digest magazine by Google Books to measure the impact of copyright on knowledge reuse in Wikipedia. I exploit a feature of the 1909 Copyright Act whereby material published before 1964 has lapsed into the public domain, allowing for the causal estimation of the impact of copyright across this sharp cutoff. I find that, while digitization encourages knowledge reuse, copyright restrictions reduce citations to copyrighted issues of Baseball Digest by up to 135% and affect readership by reducing traffic to affected pages by 20%. These impacts are highly uneven: copyright hurts the reuse of images rather than text and affects Wikipedia pages for less-popular players greater than more-popular ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Abhishek Nagaraj, 2018. "Does Copyright Affect Reuse? Evidence from Google Books and Wikipedia," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3091-3107, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:64:y:2018:i:7:p:3091-3107
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2767
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    Cited by:

    1. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    2. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    3. Liang Chen & Sali Li & Jiang Wei & Yang Yang, 2022. "Externalization in the platform economy: Social platforms and institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(8), pages 1805-1816, October.
    4. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Julia Cagé & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2020. "The Production of Information in an Online World," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(5), pages 2126-2164.
    6. Alexander Cuntz & Matthias Sahli, 2024. "Intermediary liability and trade in follow-on innovation," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(1), pages 1-42, March.
    7. Jeremy Watson & Megan MacGarvie & John McKeon, 2023. "It Was 50 Years Ago Today: Recording Copyright Term and the Supply of Music," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 351-376, January.
    8. Alan Benson & Aaron Sojourner & Akhmed Umyarov, 2020. "Can Reputation Discipline the Gig Economy? Experimental Evidence from an Online Labor Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(5), pages 1802-1825, May.
    9. Jeremy Watson, 2017. "What is the Value of Re-use? Complementarities in Popular Music," Working Papers 17-15, NET Institute.
    10. Milan Miric & Lars Bo Jeppesen, 2020. "Does piracy lead to product abandonment or stimulate new product development?: Evidence from mobile platform‐based developer firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(12), pages 2155-2184, December.
    11. Julia Cagé & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2020. "The Production of Information in an Online World," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 87(5), pages 2126-2164.
    12. Erdem Dogukan Yilmaz & Tim Meyer & Milan Miric, 2023. "Preventing Others from Commercializing Your Innovation: Evidence from Creative Commons Licenses," Papers 2309.00536, arXiv.org.
    13. Kevin J. Boudreau, 2018. "Amateurs Crowds & Professional Entrepreneurs as Platform Complementors," NBER Working Papers 24512, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1ikqf7qv0m8h7q6lmc4ng73ueq is not listed on IDEAS
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/38tbdqmgvf8f9amamb132hea9b is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Christian Peukert & Margaritha Windisch, 2023. "The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age," CESifo Working Paper Series 10687, CESifo.
    17. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/52cps7rdns8iv8fr3f1kqm7iuv is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Alexander Cuntz & Paul J. Heald & Matthias Sahli, 2023. "Digitization and Availability of Artworks in Online Museum Collections," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 75, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    19. Alexander Cuntz, 2023. "Grand rights and opera reuse today," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(1), pages 206-232.
    20. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3tcpvf3sd399op9sgtn8tq5bhd is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Alexander Cuntz & Franziska Kaiser, 2020. "Batman forever? The economics of overlapping rights," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 61, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    22. Boudreau, Kevin J. & Jeppesen, Lars Bo & Miric, Milan, 2022. "Profiting from digital innovation: Patents, copyright and performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).

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