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Can Private Copyright Protection Be Effective? Evidence from Book Publishing

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  • Imke Reimers

Abstract

Digitization has impacted publishing, news, and entertainment industries in recent years by lowering the cost of access. With the option to download creative works legally, however, come the possibility of doing so illegally and the issue of how to protect copyrighted works effectively. Public (legislative) and formal (legal) efforts to prevent copyright infringements have been controversial or inefficient. The book industry showcases an alternative approach in which private companies use relatively inexpensive network surveillance to protect individual titles. I estimate the effectiveness of such protection on legal sales of books that become protected using a difference-in-differences approach. I find a protection-related increase in sales of electronic books--the closest substitute for online piracy--of more than 14 percent, with effectiveness depending on popularity, genre, and search frequency. Most of the increase is due to prevention of casual infringements rather than professional piracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Imke Reimers, 2016. "Can Private Copyright Protection Be Effective? Evidence from Book Publishing," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 411-440.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/687521
    DOI: 10.1086/687521
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    2. Luis Aguiar & Jörg Claussen & Christian Peukert, 2018. "Catch Me If You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 656-678, September.
    3. Miguel Godinho de Matos & Pedro Ferreira & Michael D. Smith, 2018. "The Effect of Subscription Video-on-Demand on Piracy: Evidence from a Household-Level Randomized Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(12), pages 5610-5630, December.
    4. Batikas, Michail & Claussen, Jörg & Peukert, Christian, 2019. "Follow the money: Online piracy and self-regulation in the advertising industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 121-151.
    5. Tarun Jain & Jishnu Hazra & T. C. Edwin Cheng, 2020. "Illegal Content Monitoring on Social Platforms," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(8), pages 1837-1857, August.
    6. Wojciech Hardy, 2020. "Effects of piracy on the American comic book market and the role of digital formats," IBS Working Papers 01/2020, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    7. Helen Shuxuan Zeng & Brett Danaher & Michael D. Smith, 2022. "Internet Governance Through Site Shutdowns: The Impact of Shutting Down Two Major Commercial Sex Advertising Sites," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8234-8248, November.
    8. William M. Volckmann, 2023. "The effects of market size, wealth, and network effects on digital piracy and profit," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 61-85, February.
    9. Christian Peukert & Margaritha Windisch, 2023. "The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age," CESifo Working Paper Series 10687, CESifo.
    10. Bogdan Genchev & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2016. "Empirical Evidence on Conditional Pricing Practices," NBER Working Papers 22313, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Christophe Bellégo & Romain De Nijs, 2020. "The Unintended Consequences of Antipiracy Laws on Markets with Asymmetric Piracy: The Case of the French Movie Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1064-1086, December.
    12. Hardy, Wojciech, 2021. "Displacement from piracy in the American comic book market," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    13. Jeremy Watson, 2017. "What is the Value of Re-use? Complementarities in Popular Music," Working Papers 17-15, NET Institute.
    14. 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.
    15. Christian Peukert, 2019. "The next wave of digital technological change and the cultural industries," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 43(2), pages 189-210, June.
    16. Ratchford, Brian & Soysal, Gonca & Zentner, Alejandro & Gauri, Dinesh K., 2022. "Online and offline retailing: What we know and directions for future research," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 152-177.
    17. Peukert, Christian & Claussen, Jörg & Kretschmer, Tobias, 2017. "Piracy and box office movie revenues: Evidence from Megaupload," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 188-215.
    18. Hong Luo & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2017. "Copyright Enforcement: Evidence from Two Field Experiments," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 499-528, June.
    19. Boudreau, Kevin J. & Jeppesen, Lars Bo & Miric, Milan, 2022. "Profiting from digital innovation: Patents, copyright and performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    20. Christophe BELLEGO & Romain DE NIJS, 2020. "The Unintended Consequences of Anti-Piracy Laws on Markets with Asymmetric Piracy: The Case of the French Movie Industry," Working Papers 2020-03, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    21. Ayelet Israeli, 2018. "Online MAP Enforcement: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(5), pages 710-732, September.

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