What's so bad about extending copyrights? Economists weigh in [ip]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

This appears to be the 17-person amicus brief in question:
http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/supct/amici/economists.pdf

-Declan

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http://www.aei-brookings.org/publications/abstract.php?pid=421
Seventeen Famous Economists Weigh in on Copyright: The Role of Theory, 
Empirics, and Network Effects
Stan Liebowitz, Stephen Margolis. Related Publication 04-01. Jan 2004.

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The case of Eldred v. Ashcroft, which sought to have the Copyright Term 
Extension Act (CTEA, aka Sonny Bono Copyright Act) declared 
unconstitutional, was recently decided by the Supreme Court. A remarkable 
group of seventeen economists including five Noble laureates, representing 
a wide spectrum of opinion in economics, submitted an amicus curie brief in 
support of Eldred. The economists condemned CTEA on the grounds that the 
revenues earned during the extension are so heavily discounted that they 
have almost no value, while the extended protection of aged works creates 
immediate monopoly deadweight losses and increases the costs of creating 
new derivative works.

More important, we believe, than the particulars of this case, is the 
articulation of the economic issues involved in copyright extension. These 
issues are not fully developed in the brief, nor is the case as one sided 
as the Eldred economists claimed. First, private ownership of creative 
works may internalize potentially important externalities with respect to 
the use of existing works and the creation of derivative works. Second, the 
Eldred economists neglect the elasticity of the supply of creative works in 
their analysis, focusing instead solely on the benefits received by 
authors. Consequently, they may underestimate the potential for additional 
creativity, which confers benefits immediately. Third, the Eldred 
economists neglect certain features of copyright law, such as fair use, the 
distinction between idea and expression, and the parody exemption, which 
mitigate the costs of copyright. Finally, we present data that counters a 
common claim that copyright extension so far out in the future can have 
little effect on creativity. The small fraction of books that have the 
majority of commercial value when they are new appear to remain valuable 
for periods of time that are consistent with the expanded term of copyright 
under CTEA.
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