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How Copyright Keeps Works Disappeared
Author(s) -
Heald Paul J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of empirical legal studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.529
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1740-1461
pISSN - 1740-1453
DOI - 10.1111/jels.12057
Subject(s) - sample (material) , publishing , amazon rainforest , copyright law , tone (literature) , distribution (mathematics) , advertising , art , business , law , political science , literature , intellectual property , mathematics , ecology , chemistry , chromatography , biology , mathematical analysis
A random sample of new books for sale on Amazon.com shows more books for sale from the 1880s than the 1980s. Why? This article presents new data on how copyright stifles the reappearance of works. First, a random sample of more than 2,000 new books for sale on Amazon.com is analyzed along with a random sample of almost 2,000 songs available on new DVDs . Copyright status correlates highly with absence from the A mazon shelf. Together with publishing business models, copyright law seems to deter distribution and diminish access. Further analysis of e B ook markets, used books on Abebooks.com, and the C hicago P ublic Library collection suggests that no alternative marketplace for out‐of‐print books has yet developed. Data from i T unes and Y ou T ube, however, tell a different story for older hit songs. The much wider availability of old music in digital form may be explained by the differing holdings in two important cases, B oosey & H awkes v. D isney (music) and R andom H ouse v. R osetta S tone (books).