Harvard Study Says “Weak” Copyright Benefits Society
(crossposted from CreativeFreedom.org.nz)
Michael Geist summarizes an important new study on file sharing 
from economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf. The Harvard Business School working paper finds that given the increase in artistic production along with the greater public access conclude that ‘weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society.’ The authors point out that file sharing may not result in reduced incentives to create if the willingness to pay for ‘complements’ such as concerts or author speaking tours increases.
Update (19/June/2009) A reader comments “So-called “weak” copyright enforcement still maintains the same balance of public vs. private rights. In practice “weak” enforcement is still about allowing more uses, and other than enforcement one could just directly alter copyright law to grant these. One would imagine that an equally valid conclusion could be in favour of increased Fair Use.” … good point.
See also: Slashdot coverage
Update (19 June 2009) See also Arstechnica.
