Intermediary Liability and Trade in Follow-on Innovation

Alexander Cuntz and Matthias Sahli

No 21-11, IRENE Working Papers from IRENE Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: Liability rules affect the incentives of intermediaries to disseminate and curate creative works, in particular when works build on the work of predecessors and they are potentially infringing copyright. In an application to the visual arts, we show that appropriation artists borrow images from different sources and incorporate them into new, derivative works of art. By doing so, they risk infringing copyright but also put commercial trade and availability of the work at litigation risk as liability can extend to intermediaries in markets (auction houses) or in public exhibitions (museums). Using a differences-in-differences model and unique data on the level of the individual art work, we empirically investigate the impact of the prominent 2013 Cariou v. Prince U.S. court decision on trade and availability in Appropriation Art.

Keywords: Copyright; Intermediary Liability; Reuse; Appropriation Art; Auctions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O34 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages.
Date: 2021-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www5.unine.ch/RePEc/ftp/irn/pdfs/WP21-11.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Intermediary liability and trade in follow-on innovation (2024)
Working Paper: Intermediary Liability and Trade in Follow-on Innovation (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irn:wpaper:21-11

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