11/13/2022 0 Comments Disney monopolyKate: I think it’s also important to mention here that copyright law and intellectual property law overall are in the Constitution. And at the time, it only lasted for 14 years with an option to renew for another 14. In fact, it’s interesting to know that the first copyright law was introduced by George Washington himself in 1790. And this period has been increasing constantly since the birth of the republic. I think that we would be stuck with the rabbit if it wasn’t for copyright law, but the interesting fact is that this copyright law gives, generally, a time period under which you have these monopoly rights of your production. Luigi: That is fascinating and shows how important these rights are in pushing people to create new characters. And to this day, even though that was back in 1928, Disney still has a copyright on the Mickey Mouse universe. I’m going to get my own copyright, and I’m going to get all the royalties this time.” So that was the genesis of the idea for Mickey Mouse. So, he was like, “You know what? I’m going to create my own character. Unfortunately, he was working on this character under the auspices of Universal Studios and sort of ended up getting screwed out of some money, because he didn’t have the rights to this rabbit that he was putting time and energy into. I don’t know if you knew this, Luigi, Mickey Mouse came to be, in some sense, because of copyright law, but actually it was the failure of another character that Walt Disney had been working on. Kate: So, before we get into the story of Mickey Mouse, I think we owe a shout-out to one of our listeners, Francisco Higareda, who actually suggested that we do an episode on this topic. Kate: I think I have an idea of who this might be. When it comes to copyright, there is one person who is more powerful and influential than anybody else. So, first of all, what is copyright? It’s a form of intellectual property that grants the creator of an original work an exclusive legal right to determine whether and under what conditions this original work may be copied or used by others, usually for a limited period of time. Luigi: To really understand how our current system of intellectual property rights interacts with capitalism, we need to also understand copyright. Kate: On this episode, patents and our patent system. Luigi: And, more importantly, what isn’t. You’re listening to Capitalisn’t, a podcast about what’s working in capitalism today. Kate: And from Georgetown University, I’m Kate Waldock. Luigi: From the University of Chicago, I’m Luigi Zingales. Kate: But the real question is, does the patent system, and our entire system of intellectual property, for that matter, accomplish these goals? There are some economists who say, not really, and a few who say that we should actually have no patent system at all. These extra profits act as a reward to innovation and motivate companies to invest billions in R&D. Being without any competitors for a while, an inventor can earn extra profits. A patent grants an inventor an exclusive right to produce. Essentially, it’s a temporary monopoly designed to create incentives to innovate. Luigi: Last week, we discussed how the patent system works. This information may be linked to targeting/advertising activities. The social network will record that you have done this. These cookies are used when you share information using a social media sharing button or “like” button on our websites, or you link your account or engage with our content on or through a social media site. The cookies will remember the website you have visited, and this information is shared with other parties such as advertising technology service providers and advertisers. These cookies collect information about your browsing habits to make advertising relevant to you and your interests. They may be set by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages or by us. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. These cookies are used to collect information on how users interact with Chicago Booth websites allowing us to improve the user experience and optimize our site where needed based on these interactions. These cookies are essential to enable the services to provide the requested feature, such as remembering you have logged in.
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