Copyright-As-Incentive – It Doesn’t Work

Defenders of copyright laws say stringent protections are essential to ensure the continuing viability of intellectual property. Is it true? Jason Schultz did a few calculations on the movies. There were 36,386 titles released from 1927-1946, he says. Of those: only 2,480 are available on VHS; only 871 are available on DVD; only 114 are available on Pay-Per-View; and only 13 are available in theaters. “If that assumption is correct, then only 2,480 out of 36,386 titles from 1927-1946 are available, or 6.8%. 93.2% are commercially dormant.”