interesting article from robert g. picard, tobias dahlström, and edward humphreys. if i understand it right i would assume that the pressure to transform copyright infringment from a civil to a criminal act combined with the eu-discussion about the value of national monopoly of the collecting society, can lead to a justification problem of author rights and copyright in general¿?

The rationale for criminalization of copyright infringement is that appropriation is a form of theft that creates social harm in addition to individual harm to the copyright owner. This occurs because society is denied the economic benefits of copyright by illicit uses. | picard

lawyers say that its the collecting society that justifies the existence of copyright as they split it into shares. although their maths is not always easy to follow.

if appropriation is a form of theft, governments have to invest into law enforcement which would diminish the value of copyright law for the society in general; beside of the fact that - as fear goes - the remodeling of the collecting societies in europe could end with the creation of one giant private monopoly. if so the argumentation "economic benefit for the society" wouldn't exist anymore and copyright and author's right would loose its most important byline: of social interest; then what?

It has also been shown that infringement does not create uniform economic harm to producers and the effects vary depending upon the characteristics of the copyrighted product involved (Picard, 2004).

(a) optimal protection decreases as the cost of production falls (and vice-versa); and (b) the level optimal protection, in general, declines over time.

... optimal level of copyright. Thus, in the final section we provide an estimate of optimal term – probably the most important aspect of the level of copyright. Our estimate of optimal term (14 years) is far below the length copyright in almost all jurisdictions. | rufus pollack

. Die fortschreitende Internationalisierung von Konsumentenwünschen und Geschmacksrichtungen hat die Voraussetzung für Serienproduktionen im europäischen Maßstab geschaffen. | 1968

nummerierung der dänen:

Für die rund 4,8 Millionen Dänen werden etwa 50 Magnetbandspulen benötigt. | 1967