This work explores the problems arising from dynamic information technology in its application to intellectual property rights. In a global marketplace of ideas, political boundaries and the sovereignty of the nation state seem to be disappearing because of the increasing difficulty of scrutinizing the infringement of intellectual property. That is particularly true of computer software, the focus of this book. The work analyzes the legal and political economy implications of investment in the software programming industry and the near-futility of monitoring protection of intellectual property in industry. The book begins by exploring the current state of copyright laws for computer software. It analyzes the economic theories of demand elasticities, public choice, clubs, and the concept of public goods as those theories apply to intellectual property, particularly computer software. This analysis is followed by a discussion of prevailing legislation in the United States, Europe, Japan, Asia, and China. The analysis is fortified by a comprehensive coverage of the Uruguay Round. The work concludes in favor of the free flow of information, which yields overwhelming benefits to a globally integrated market.

This publication constitutes the second volume of the National Studies on Assessing the Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries, Creative Industries Series. It contains the results of five national studies representing the contribution of the creative sector - in terms of value-added, employment, and foreign trade - in the Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica, Bulgaria and Lebanon. The publication reviews the contribution of economic activities based on copyright and related rights to the creation of national value added, employment and trade in selected countries and broadens the scope of WIPO-led research on the economic aspects of copyright.

Global change affects all areas of public policy and crucial aspects of governing institutions. National and international intellectual property (IP) agencies are increasingly at the fulcrum of such change but are among the least well-examined of governing and policy realms. Among the oldest agencies of government, they are moving from a long era of contented obscurity to that of increasing political and economic exposure and controversy.This is the first book to examine IP agencies in the context of this transformation. Taking a basic institutional perspective, the book examines the changes in and relationships among four national and international IP agencies: the patent offices of the US, UK, Canada and Australia; the World Intellectual Property Office, the European Patent Office and the World Trade Organization. Focusing on the 1990s, the book traces institutional changes that centre on the core trade-off in intellectual property policy between protection and dissemination of intellectual property. These are examined in relation to the two broad dusters of interests that operate around the protection versus dissemination functions. The former is dominated by big business and the IP professions and the latter by much more dispersed and emerging interests.

"This book is the result of a team effort that has brought together researchers from Europe, Japan and North America. Their backgrounds and experience reflect the interdisciplinary scope of the book, which covers economic, political and business aspects of service enterprises and cooperation in the Pacific-Asia region. The idea for this project originated with Gavin Boyd, who approached l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in 1990 in order to explore possible avenues of cooperation. HEC's Center for International Business Studies (CETAI), which has a long-standing interest in Asia, agreed to support the project, and the newly created Orner DeSerres Chair of Commerce, also at HEC, accepted to coordinate the project and to provide technical support. Gavin Boyd, Associate Member of CET AI, and Gunnar K. Sletmo, Orner DeSerres Professor of Commerce and Member of CETAI, agreed to serve as coeditors for the book."

This title is a clear and detailed account of the law and practice of copyright, explained in a user-friendly manner. Coverage includes changes in licensing developments and electronic copyright progress, and updates arising from EU harmonisation of copyright law. There is also information on design right and copyright-related rights such as recording and performing rights. A glossary of terms and an index help to make this a key reference guide to a notoriously complex area of information management.

Thoroughly revised and updated, this Student Edition of the successful Handbook of New Media has been abridged to showcase the best of the hardback edition. This Handbook sets out boundaries of new media research and scholarship and provides a definitive statement of the current state-of-the-art of the field. Covering major problem areas of research, the Handbook of New Media includes an introductory essay by the editors and a concluding essay by Ron Rice. Each chapter, written by an internationally renowned scholar, provides a review of the most significant social research findings and insights.

Valuing Intellectual Capital provides readers with prescriptive strategies and practical insights for estimating the value of intellectual property (IP) and the people who create that IP within multinational companies. This book addresses the crucial topic of taxation from a rigorous and quantitative perspective, backed by experience and original research that illustrates how large corporations need to measure the worth of their intangible assets. Each method in the text is applied through the lens of a model corporation, in order for readers to understand and quantify the operation of a real-world multinational enterprise and pinpoint how companies easily misvalue their intellectual capital when transferring IP rights to offshore tax havens. The effect contributes to the issues that can lead to budgetary crises, such as the so-called “fiscal cliff” that was partially averted by passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act on New Year’s day 2013. This book also features a chapter containing recommendations for a fair and balanced corporate tax structure free of misvaluation and questionable mechanisms. CFOs, corporate auditors, corporate financial analysts, corporate financial planners, economists, and journalists working with issues of taxation will benefit from the concepts and background presented in the book. The material clearly indicates how a trustworthy valuation of intellectual capital allows a realistic assessment of a company’s income, earnings, and obligations.​ Because of the intense interest in the topic of corporate tax avoidance the material is organized to be accessible to a broad audience.