A New Copyright Bargain?: Reclaiming Lost Culture and Getting Authors Paid

Abstract

Despite having put authors at the forefront of expansionary rhetoric for generations, copyright can’t seem to find a way of actually getting them paid. At the same time, current approaches negatively impact copyright's access aims by preventing the preservation and use of works even where their owners have no further interest.

These failures come about because existing frameworks are based on outdated assumptions that no longer hold good. This paper describes an alternative bargain that better reflects the realities of the world we now inhabit. It shows it is possible to design a copyright law that maintains incentives, reclaims much of the culture lost under current approaches and simultaneously secures more rewards to authors - all within the confines of the effectively unamendable texts of Berne and TRIPS.

Keywords: Copyright, Berne, TRIPS, Authors, Libraries, Incentives, Rewards

JEL Classification: K19