Christian Handke

Digital Copying and the Supply of Sound Recordings

One concern with digitization in markets for information goods is that unauthorized, digital copying will reduce the number and quality of original works supplied. Despite a substantial literature on the effects of piracy on demand for recorded music, information on the supply-effects of digital copying is limited. This paper presents empirical evidence that digital copying has not reduced the supply of new, copyrighted sound recordings in Germany. Even with a strong reduction in sales of sound recordings that accompanied the diffusion of digital copying technology, the annual number of new titles released to the market continued to expand. Results indicate that the number of new titles released has not deviated significantly from a long-term upward trend. The paper also presents evidence that the amount of time listening to sound recordings has not fallen over this period, suggesting no strong decline in the quality of new work.

Standardisation in the area of innovation and technological development, notably in the field of Text and Data Mining: report from the expert group

Text and data mining (TDM) is an important technique for analysing and extracting new insights and knowledge from the exponentially increasing store of digital data (‘Big Data’). TDM is useful to researchers of all kinds, from historians to medical experts, and its methods are relevant to organisations throughout the public and private sectors. TDM represents a significant economic opportunity for Europe. Prolific use of TDM would add tens of billions of Euros in value to the EU’s aggregate GDP. At present, the use of TDM tools by researchers in Europe appears to be lower than in its main competitors. There is a serious risk that Europe’s relative competitive position as a research location for the exploitation of digital data will deteriorate further, if steps are not taken to address the issues discussed in this report.

Knocking on Heaven's Door - User Preferences on Digital Cultural Distribution

This paper explores the social, demographic and attitudinal basis of consumer support of a Copyright Compensation System (CCS), which, for a small monthly fee would legalise currently infringing online social practices such as private copying from illegal sources and online sharing of copyrighted works. We do this by first identifying how different online and offline, legal and illegal, free and paying content acquisition channels are used in the media market using a cluster-based classification of respondents. Second, we assess the effect of cultural consumption on the support for a shift from the status quo towards alternative, CCS-based forms of digital cultural content distribution. Finally, we link these two analyses to identify the factors that drive the dynamics of change in digital cultural consumption habits. Our study shows significant support to a CCS compared to the status quo by both occasional and frequent buyers of cultural goods, despite the widespread adoption of legal free and paying online services by consumers. The nature of these preferences are also explored with the inclusion of consumer preference intensities regarding certain CCS attributes. Our results have relevant policy implications, for they outline CCS as a reform option. In particular, they point evidence-based copyright reform away from its current direction in the EU of stronger enforcement measures, additional exclusive rights, and increased liability and duties of care for online platforms. This work shows that CCS may be an apt policy tool to hinder piracy and potentially increase right holder revenues, while respecting fundamental rights and promoting technological development.

The Economics of Collective Copyright Management

This chapter introduces the basic economics of collective administration of copyrights, summarizes the economic literature to date and puts various contributions into perspective. Markets for copyrights are changing with the diffusion of digital information and communication technology. It is contentious how the system of collective administration should adapt. The organization of collective administration in national monopolies (or very rarely duopolies) has also come under more intensive scrutiny lately. There seems ample scope to apply economic theory to inform these debates.

Is Europe Falling Behind in Data Mining? Copyright's Impact on Data Mining in Academic Research

With the diffusion of digital information technology, data mining (DM) is widely expected to increase the productivity of all kinds of research activities. Based on bibliometric data, we demonstrate that the share of DM-related research articles in all published academic papers has increased substantially over the last two decades. We develop an ordinal categorization of countries according to essential aspects of the copyright system affecting the costs and benefits of DM research. We demonstrate that countries in which data mining for academic research requires the express consent of rights holders, data mining makes up a significantly smaller share of total research output. To our knowledge, this is the first time that an empirical study identified a significant negative association between copyright protection and innovation. We also show that within countries where DM requires express consent by rights holders, there is an inverse relationship between rule of law indicators and the share of DM related articles in all research articles.

Copyright policy, innovation, and the limits to our understanding - a response to Birgitte Andersen's 'Shackling the digital economy means less for everyone'

Christian Handke is assistant professor of Cultural Economics in the Department for the Study of the Arts and Culture at Erasmus University and Visiting Research Fellow with the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management, Bournemouth University.

From Austria to Australia: Mark Blaug and cultural economics

The first question is of particular interest because Mark Blaug played a formative role in the economics of the arts and culture. He pioneered what he called the ‘economics of the arts’ in the 1970s, and he kept contributing to what came to be called ‘cultural economics’ ever since. Over more than four decades, he played an important role in establishing cultural economics as a recognized discipline in applied economics – even though he was not too fond of this term himself. A noteworthy constant in Mark Blaug’s writing is that it reflects a genuine interest in what many others have written. Similar to his work on the history of economic thought or the economics of education, for example, he kept taking stock of the literature on cultural economics, pointing out achievements, gaps and desirable extensions, which provide a useful point of orientation and inspiration for anyone concerned with cultural economics.

Entscheidungsexperimente als Grundlage für die Bewertung und Ausgestaltung öffentlich-rechtlicher Medienangebote

Hohe und obligatorische Rundfunkbeitrage in Deutschland weisen nicht nur auf eine Wertschatzung fur die offentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten hin; aus ihnen ergibt sich auch ein hoher Rechtfertigungsdruck. Zudem konkurriert das offentlich-rechtliche Medienangebot zunehmend nicht nur mit dem privaten Rundfunk sondern auch mit neuen Medienangeboten online. Dieses Kapitel zeigt auf, wie sich eine bessere empirische Grundlage fur die Finanzierung und Gestaltung des offentlich-rechtlichen Medienangebots erreichen lasst. Wir schlagen insbesondere Entscheidungsexperimente als relativ gunstige und effektive Methode vor, um zwei Ziele zu erreichen: 1) die Wertschopfung durch das offentlich-rechtliche Medienangebot zu belegen; 2) durch eine bessere Informationsgrundlage eine sinnvolle Anpassung des offentlich-rechtlichen Angebots im Laufe gesellschaftlichen und technologischen Wandels zu unterstutzen. Das Kapitel diskutiert die Herausforderungen, die bei der Finanzierung offentlicher Guter durch allgemeine Abgaben auftreten und inwiefern unterschiedliche experimentelle Forschungsansatze geeignet sind, den Wert des offentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunks zu ermitteln. Es fasst bisherige Ergebnisse von Entscheidungsexperimenten zum offentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk zusammen und schlagt mogliche Erweiterungen und Verfeinerungen vor. Es ist dringend geboten, eine bessere empirische Grundlage fur die Finanzierung und Weiterentwicklung des offentlich-rechtlichen Medienangebots zu erzeugen. Ausgefeilte Entscheidungsexperimente konnten hierzu einen wichtigen Beitrag leisten.

Musikwirtschaftsforschung und das Internet

Aus der Digitalisierung und Internetnutzung ergeben sich nicht nur weitreichende Veranderungen in der Musikwirtschaft. Auch fur die Musikwirtschaftsforschung entstehen neue Moglichkeiten und Herausforderungen. Dieses Kapitel gibt einen aktuellen Uberblick uber Themen, Datenquellen und Methoden der Musikwirtschaftsforschung in diesem Zusammenhang, insbesondere aus sozialwissenschaftlicher Sicht. Das Kapitel zeigt auf, dass die akademische Literatur zur Musikwirtschaftsforschung in den letzten Jahren schnell gewachsen ist und heute auf vielfaltigere Daten zuruckgreift als in den vorherigen Jahrzehnten. Wichtige Themen sind: (1) der Urheberrechtsschutz und seine Alternativen, (2) die Folgen des digitalen Einzelhandels und der Rolle von Internetplattformen wie YouTube oder Spotify, (3) die Verfugbarkeit und Nutzung von digitalen Daten durch AkteurInnen in der Musikwirtschaft, sowie (4) die aktive Rolle von AmateurInnen und EndnutzerInnen in der Wertschopfung durch sogenannte nutzergenerierte Inhalte oder nutzergetriebene Innovation in der Bewertung und Verbreitung von Musik.

Experimental Methods in Media Research

Causal effects are a prime concern in media policy research, and experimental research designs are widely regarded as the most effective way to identify and gauge causality. Nevertheless, explicit applications of experimental methods are rare in media policy research. This chapter discusses experimental research designs in the context of this research area. It covers essential aspects of experimental research and identifies two types of experiments that are particularly suitable for media policy research: quasi-experiments and choice experiments. For each of these experiment types, we present a successful application. We discuss the benefits of experimental empirical work and some do’s and don’ts. Overall, we argue that an experimental mind-set can help to improve a broad range of empirical work on media policy, including qualitative research.