Millennium Madness, Now That We Are Over That ...

Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Coe, Richard

Keywords

Economics, Information Technology, Intellectual Property

Area of Concentration

Economics

Abstract

This paper will take an economic perspective on the recent changes in intellectual property policy brought about by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) in terms of its effect on social welfare. These changes were made to help content producers cope with a changing market. I conclude that the DMCA is not well worded for this advantage. It places static significance on a dynamic medium. I do find the effective strength of the protection to be sound. In particular, I find that as the marginal cost of reproducing a particular piece of intellectual material decreases more rapidly with respect to high fixed of entry, the strength of copyright should increase as the length of term decreases. Thus, in tandem with the current length of copyrights, the DMCA facilitates a monopoly advantage for producers with a corresponding large deadweight loss for society.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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