Brousseau, Eric --- "Property Rights in the Digital Space" [2004] ELECD 117; in Colombatto, Enrico (ed), "The Elgar Companion to the Economics of Property Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to the Economics of Property Rights

Editor(s): Colombatto, Enrico

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781840649949

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: Property Rights in the Digital Space

Author(s): Brousseau, Eric

Number of pages: 35

Extract:

20 Property rights in the digital space
Eric Brousseau*


Internet, a global and integrated information space
Digital technologies overwhelm the economics of information, knowledge and
networks. First, they increase the fixed-costs nature of these resources, turning
them into less rival goods than before (Shapiro and Varian 1999). Second, the
digital codification of information allows the separation of the management of
containers from the management of contents, leading to `universal' platforms
able to manage any kind of information independent of its nature (whether it is
information, codified or tacit knowledge), its form (voice, image, data and so
on), or its semantics (whatever `language' is used to establish links between
things, concepts and form of perceptible expression). When compatible techni-
cal solutions are implemented across groups of users, the platform becomes
global. It enables any agent to transmit any information to any third party or to
access contents. Third, the rules that govern the use of information can be
implemented in the software that manages the hardware. This provides the
opportunity to implement self-enforcing rules about the possible use of the
technology and the information (Lessig 1999).
Of course, none of these characteristics is perfect in the digital world.
Variable costs are not equal to zero. Technical standards are competing and
imperfect. Hackers constantly break codes. Moreover, these characteristics
do not free economic agents of all constraints. Solutions have to be imple-
mented to cover fixed costs and to stimulate agents to contribute to the
production of public goods. Coordination ...