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DIME Working Papers series on Intellectual Property Rights 16 - 20
WP16: The Impact of Internet on IPR - A Case Study of Music Industry in Croatia
Marta Bozina, University of Zagreb Croatia
Kosjenka Dumancic, University of Zagreb Croatia
Blazenka Knezevic, University of Zagreb Croatia
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) there is a trend of rapid growth of Internet users in EU-candidate countries (Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey), according to ITU reports, the number of Internet users has tripled since the year 2000. Nowadays, Internet is affecting and changing almost every industry in transitional countries.
The impact is most obvious in industries which deal with goods that can be easily digitalized and distributed online. Due to a large number of Internet users, network effects and accessibility of different easy-to-use software tools both for digitalization and distribution, music seems to be most exposed to Internet theft and piracy. In this paper the case of Croatian music industry will be discussed together with the legal framework regarding the issue of digital music.
WP17: Looking at Vuitton: Negotiating value and price of counterfeit merchandise in Shanghai's Xiangyang market
Gard Hopsdal Hansen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Henrik Kloppenborg Moeller, University of Copenhagen
The paper examines how different notions of value are drawn into action in exchanges when people evaluate and negotiate ‘fake’ branded commodities at the Xiangyang market in Shanghai.
With a critical look into classical economic and sociological debates on how to perceive of value and its construction, we further explore how different values, and perhaps ontologies, of objects are continually (re-)negotiated and (re-)created in relation to rationalities inherent in different economic systems.
In discussing different economic rationalities as a base for comparison, we will also argue that the constructions of values of ‘fake’ commodities, though living their own ‘social lives’, are intimately intermingled in references to the social-symbolic values of the ‘real’ brands. The paper is based on empirical data gathered during six months of fieldwork, participant observation and interviews with vendors, customers and other actors engaged in the exchange of ‘fake’ and ‘real’ commodites. In addition to the more traditional research methods, we also conducted an experiment in which we purchased and used a ‘fake’ Luis Vuitton bag to collect and analyze various opinions and arguments regarding values, quality and price.
WP18: IPR Protection in the High-Tech Industries: A Model of Piracy
Thierry Rayna, University of Bristol
This article investigates the relation between the level of publicness of digital goods – i.e. their degree of non-excludability and non-rivalness – and the pirating behaviour of the consumers.
The main focus is put on the difference between the ex-ante level of publicness – determined by the anti-piracy strategies of the firms – and the ex-post level of publicness – which is a consequence of external factors such as the consumers network structure, the consumers sharing behaviour, etc.
The two models developed in the article detail the required conditions for anti-piracy strategies to be successful and show the influence of the environment on these conditions.
WP19: Patenting Race in a Genomic Age
Jonathan Kahn, Hamline University School of Law
WP20: Inventive Activities, Patents and Early Industrialization. A Synthesis of Research Issues
Christine MacLeod, University of Bristol
Alessandro Nuvolari, Ecis
The aim of this paper is to provide a roadmap to recent research on the role of patent systems in the early phases of industrialization. Perhaps surprisingly, no consensus has been reached yet as to whether the emergence of modern patent systems exerted a favourable impact on inventive activities.
However, the recent literature has shed light on a number of fundamental factors which affect the links between inventive activities and the patent system. The concluding section of the paper outlines some "history lessons" for the current debate on the role of Intellectual Property Rights in economic development.
