Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/242523 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Working Paper Series No. 2013/09
Publisher: 
Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, Auckland
Abstract: 
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the question, whether copyright infringement of digital products like software commonly labelled as piracy impedes innovation. We find the answer depends on the nature of piracy i.e. whether it is end-users or commercial piracy. For end user piracy, copyright infringement does not necessarily impede innovation; in fact it can be shown that it encourages innovation when the pirates are active. However, for commercial piracy, it always impedes innovation which has negative implications on the overall welfare of the society. We show under what conditions the government intervention through IPR protection strategy (like monitoring and imposing a fine to the pirate) can support the copyright holder for higher level of innovation. We find the socially optimally monitoring rate for the government that result in maximum innovation for the copyright holder
Subjects: 
Innovation
piracy
monitoring
social welfare
JEL: 
D21
D43
L13
L21
L26
O3
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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