[Foundation-l] Research: Optimal copyright term is about 14 years

[Roger Luethi]

On Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:20:33 +0100, David Gerard wrote:
> On 13/07/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> > Considering that this was the term in Queen Anne's Act of 1710, it has
> > taken us 300 years to get back to where we started.  And they did it
> > without the benefit of economic formulas.
> 
> How did they get 14 years then?

The Act of Anne was basically a slightly modified Stationer's Copyright
(which was perpetual and discredited for fostering monopolies and for its
historical ties with censorship); its term limit may have been inspired by
the Statute of Monopolies 14 years term (twice the duration of an
apprenticeship -- a foreigner bringing new technology to the UK enjoyed a
monopoly while training two generations of local folks). I think Paul David
argued something along these lines.

Like any economic model, the model in the paper can be tweaked to get a
desired "optimal term". Arriving at 14 years appears to be somewhat of a
publicity gag.

Roger