Assessing the Economic Impact of Copyright Reform on Authors, Makers, Photographers and Publishers in Canada in Reference to Two New Copyright-Related Treaties: WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT), WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT)

Other Requirements for Efficient Copyright Markets

One additional requirement for the emergence of efficient markets in copyrights is the competitive nature of the markets. Although the goal of the two new WIPO treaties, the WCT and WPPT treaties, is to better protect the rights of copyright holders, namely creators (composers, writers, artists, interprets, makers, etc.), producers and distributors of copyrighted works, one must recognize that in the industry sector 51, composed of information and cultural industries, the level of competition is rather high. Not only there are in each field an intense competition between national and international creators (composers, writers, artists, interprets, makers, etc.), producers and distributors of copyright works, but there is also a level of free entry and exit, which is also quite significant. Hence, one expects that well-defined and enforced copyrights will contribute to an even higher level of competition and therefore proper competitive prices for the use of copyrighted works. One can expect that entry in the relevant industries will be characterized by aggressive pricing of copyright works use, with new creations being distributed freely (given the highly price-elastic demand for new works), in order to develop the new creators' reputation. Once the creators become well known and more popular (leading to a relatively price-inelastic demand), one expects that copyright use will be priced much higher, thereby implementing a desired Ramsey-Boiteux pricing structure in the industry. As a matter of illustration, let us consider the specific case of blank media levies in lieu of copyright payments for private copying of pre-recorded music works.