The Effect of Piracy on Markets for Consumer Transmutation Rights

We have shown in a previous study that selling content-transmutation rights to consumers increases total surplus of both producers and consumers of digital products. Our results were conditional on the absence of piracy. There has been some research on the effect of online piracy in traditional content markets that do not consider consumer transmutation. Some claim that piracy damages producers’ surplus because it causes decline of music sales. At the same time, others claim that piracy, under certain conditions, has beneficial effects on production of digital products and increases profitability. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether piracy can damage the benefits

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: HICSS
• Authors: Karl Reiner Lang, Richard D. Shang, Roumen Vragov
• Keywords: Biometrics, Digital Products, HICSS 2009, Increases Total Surplus, Piracy, System Sciences