New Technologies and Intellectual Property: An Economic Analysis

摘要

A greater understanding was developed of how new information and communications technologies may affect the economic system in which knowledge based products and services are created, produced, packaged, distributed, and used. Examined are: (1) the economic basis for the systems of private property rights in intellectual property, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets; (2) the economic behavior of producers of intellectual property; (3) the effects of new technologies on that behavior; (4) the effects of the legal treatment of authors, publishers, packagers, distributors, and users; (5) the issues involved in estimating the harm to producers of intellectual property that results from the introduction of new technologies; and (6) various types of government intervention that may be used to promote the supply of intellectual property.