Global reuse and adaptation in the creative industries – Three further arguments against intellectual property based on lessons from China

Abstract

This paper reviews the theory of intellectual property (IP) in the creative industries (CI) from the open system evolutionary economic perspective. We argue that many current confusions about the nature and role of IP and dysfunctions of extant IP regimes in the CI can be traced to three widely overlooked aspects of the open system growth of knowledge context of IP in the CI: (1) the effect of globalization; (2) the dominating relative economic value of reuse of creative output over monopoly incentives to create input; and (3) the evolution of business models in response to institutional change. We conclude that a substantial weakening of copyright will, in theory, produce positive net public and private gain due to the evolutionary dynamics of all three dimensions.