Copyright as an Incentive for Musical Creation: An Examination of the Effects of Copyright Law Changes On Registrations, 1978-2006

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of changes in United States copyright legislation on the quantity of musical copyright registrations between the years 1978-2006. The legislative amendments examined herein are: (1) the Bern Convention Implementation Act of 1988, (2) the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 1994, (3) the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, (4) the Digital Millennium Copyright Act also of 1998, and (5) the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. The author manipulated Library of Congress data in order to carry out said analysis, since no prior data set of musical copyright registrations had been previously compiled. Although federal copyright legislation regulates all cultural industries, the properties of musical compositions are sharply distinct from those of the literary works upon which copyright legislation was crafted. Additionally, music has undergone a drastic evolution with respect to its primary methods of consumption since the establishment of U.S. copyright legislation in 1790. These facts warrant analysis of the efficacy of copyright legislation specifically as an incentive for musical creation. This paper finds significant evidence that the Sonny Bono and Digital Millennium Acts, and the Family and Entertainment Act all provide statistically significant positive incentive for the creation of musical works. This paper further establishes that the above amendments exert a greater influence on the magnitude of monthly musical copyright registrations by the Big Four record labels than other musical copyright owners.