The Impact of Piracy and Technical Protection of Results of Intellectual Activity on Social Welfare

Abstract

The article reflects the main aspects that should be taken into account in developing and changing the regulation of intellectual property sphere. Being harmful in some aspects, piracy also has a number of properties that can be useful for copyright owners: information, network and indirect effects. The paper presents a mathematical model showing the case where the protection of intellection activity result can cause more damage to public welfare than piracy itself. The findings show a need for tools more flexible than the intellectual property system so that every copyright owner can choose the required level of protection.