Question

According to the Copyright Act of? 1790, a? copyright's life was limited to 28? years, including extensions.? Today, copyrights are valid for the entire period of the? author's life plus another 70 years. A copyright for a book that was published before 1923 is likely to have expired by? now, but books published after 1923 are still under copyright protection. Research has shown? that, of all the books that are in print? today, a larger proportion were published before 1923. This is despite the fact that the number of books being published every year has been steadily increasing.

What do you think could explain the fact that most of the books available today are from the period before? 1923?

A.

A copyright is granted to an individual or firm by the federal government and comes with a maximum quantity that the government will allow the copyright holder to produce.

B.

A copyright gives the owner an exclusive right to a piece of intellectual? property, thus allowing them to act as a monopoly. Monopolists typically reduce quantity supplied to drive up the price of the good that they produce.

C.

The costs of the inputs used to make books has increased sharply over? time, including paper and ink costs.

D.

All of the above.

Answer 1

B.

A copyright gives the owner an exclusive right to a piece of intellectual? property, thus allowing them to act as a monopoly. Monopolists typically reduce quantity supplied to drive up the price of the good that they produce.

This is because the books published before 1923 have lost their copyright by now . So many firms can publish those books . The owner does not have any monopoly power over the book . So allured by the profit rate , many publishers prduce them in order to make profits . Whereas books after 1923 still have a copyright or the monopoly power .