RALEIGH—The length of time for copyright protection, which extends for the life of a creator plus 70 years, is excessive and society would benefit if that period were shortened, the dean of the Barton College School of Business says.
In “The Economics of Intellectual Property,” a study published in July by the John Locke Foundation, John J. Bethune wrote that “strictly speaking, patents and copyrights are grants of monopoly privilege” — and rightfully so. But he said patents and copyrights should last for a period of time that will maximize the public good, yet still protect the motivation to innovate.
“It can be shown that protecting intellectual property creates important incentives to pursue new research and create new works of art, and without these protections many innovative works would never be pursued,” Bethune wrote.
“…Analysis demonstrates that a time period can be chosen for both copyright and patent protection that will maximize the benefit to society, while minimizing the harmful distortions that monopolies create.”
While he concluded that copyright protections were too long, Bethune said he thought that in some circumstances the current 17-year protection for patents was too short.
“For example,” he wrote, “it is often the case in the research and development of new drugs, that the monetary and time costs of development are not fully compensated under the current legal structure.”
Bethune considered the length of intellectual property protection mainly from an economic perspective. He acknowledged that monopolies are inefficient and restrict consumer choice and lead to higher prices than those that would exist in a competitive situation. Yet removing the incentive to innovate would have negative consequences also.
“Without legal protections, the creators would be unable to reap any significant monetary benefits, especially in light of the likely costs incurred to create the good,” Bethune wrote. “If this is the case, an undersupply of these creative ideas and the resulting works would ensue, making society worse off.”
Still, Bethune said, drastically shortening the length of copyright protection would benefit consumers through lower prices, yet preserve the impetus for individual creativity. He said that a protection time as short as 15 years could be sufficient.
“What we seek is just enough protection to induce the creator to create,” Bethune wrote, “and no more.”
Chesser is associate editor at Carolina Journal.