COPYRIGHT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: CATALYST OR BARRIER?

Abstract

The paper critically revisits the theory of entrepreneurship giving particular weight to the economic, business and sociological meaning of the term. It supports the position that the creator should be thought of as an entrepreneur, i.e. somebody who not only creates but who is also, or even primarily, aiming to exploit his/her creation to appropriate rent. The paper tries to build a theoretical framework to facilitate research in the cultural industries using the concepts of disequilibrium, entrepreneurial opportunity and rent, and intellectual property rights. We assess the disruptive role of new technologies in the music industry and examine the role of copyright as an institution that can both hinder or facilitate entrepreneurship and innovation in the digital domain.

Keywords:

• Music industry
• entrepreneurship
• intellectual property rights
• disruptive technologies
• peer to peer (P2P) file-sharing
• resource based view