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  • Journal of Economics & Management Strategy

Infringing Use as a Path to Legal Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Hong Luo and Julie Holland Mortimer
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Abstract

Digitization has transformed how users find and use copyrighted goods, but many existing legal options remain difficult to access, possibly leading to infringement. In a field experiment, we contact firms that are caught infringing on expensive digital images. Emails to all firms include a link to the licensing page of the infringed image; for treated firms, we add links to a significantly cheaper licensing option. Making infringers aware of the cheaper option leads to a fourteen-fold increase in the ex-post licensing rate, albeit from an extremely low baseline for the control firms. Two additional experimental interventions, designed to reduce search costs for (i) price and (ii) product information, also have large positive effects. Our results suggest that ex-post monetization (e.g., licensing after use) may expand the market, and that rights holders can create value by minimizing search and transactions costs.

Keywords

Copyright Infringement; Field Experiment

Citation

Luo, Hong, and Julie Holland Mortimer. "Infringing Use as a Path to Legal Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment." Journal of Economics & Management Strategy (forthcoming).
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About The Author

Hong Luo

Strategy
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Spotify's Audio-First Strategy: Leading the Podcasting Market By: Hong Luo and Carol Lin
  • Universal During COVID: The Future of Theatrical Windows By: Hong Luo, Henry McGee and Carol Lin
  • Invest in Information or Wing It? A Model of Dynamic Pricing with Seller Learning By: Guofang Huang, Hong Luo and Jing Xia
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