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Fair use and fair competition for digitized cultural goods: the case of eBooks

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  • Françoise Benhamou

Abstract

This paper investigates the main characteristics of the eBook market at the beginning of the 2010s. Although just emerging in Europe, the eBook market is much more developed in the USA, thanks to the launch of the Amazon Kindle in 2007 in addition to other tablets. It argues that the peculiarities of the eBook market lead to unfair competition between internet giants (especially Google and Amazon) and publishers. The paper outlines the legal and economic tools put forward in order to justify economic strategies in this field: fair use in the case of Google, lower prices for consumers in the case of Amazon. The paper focuses explicitly on the boundaries of competition policies in order to raise fair competition for digitized cultural industries. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Françoise Benhamou, 2015. "Fair use and fair competition for digitized cultural goods: the case of eBooks," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(2), pages 123-131, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jculte:v:39:y:2015:i:2:p:123-131
    DOI: 10.1007/s10824-015-9241-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Karol Jan Borowiecki & Trilce Navarrete, 2018. "Fiscal and economic aspects of book consumption in the European Union," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(2), pages 309-339, May.
    2. Karol J. Borowiecki & Trilce Navarrete, 2017. "Digitization of heritage collections as indicator of innovation," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 227-246, April.
    3. Ojala, Arto & Evers, Natasha & Rialp, Alex, 2018. "Extending the international new venture phenomenon to digital platform providers: A longitudinal case study," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 725-739.
    4. Silvi Berger & Morten Hviid, 2019. "Who Should Set Book Prices?," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2019-07, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    5. Hviid, Morten & Izquierdo Sanchez, Sofia & Jaques, Sabine, 2016. "From publishers to self-publishing: The disruptive effects of digitalisation on the book industry," MPRA Paper 76057, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Hilgers-Sekowsky, Julia & Oral, Cansu & Schuster, Gabriele, 2018. "Trendstudie 2018: Lese- und Schreibverhalten der Generationen X, Y, Z," IU Discussion Papers - Marketing & Communication 1/2018, IU International University of Applied Sciences.
    7. Pierre-Jean Benghozi & Elisa Salvador, 2016. "How and Where the R&D Takes Place in Creative Industries? Digital Investment Strategies of the Book Publishing Sector," Post-Print hal-02078881, HAL.
    8. Nadine Kammerlander & Andreas König & Melanie Richards, 2018. "Why Do Incumbents Respond Heterogeneously to Disruptive Innovations? The Interplay of Domain Identity and Role Identity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(7), pages 1122-1165, November.

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