Vanderbilt Law Review Volume 62 | Issue 6 Article 2 11-2009 Does Copyright Law Promote Creativity? An Empirical Analysis of Copyright's Bounty Raymond S. Ray Jiayang Sun Yiying Fan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr Part of the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Raymond S. Ray, Jiayang Sun, and Yiying Fan, Does Copyright Law Promote Creativity? An Empirical Analysis of Copyright's Bounty, 62 Vanderbilt Law Review 1667 (2019) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol62/iss6/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Does Copyright Law Promote Creativity? An Empirical Analysis of Copyright's Bounty Raymond Shih Ray Ku, Jiayang Sun, Yiying Fan 62 Vand. L. Rev. 1669 (2009) Modern copyright law is based upon a theory: increase copyright protection and you increase the number of creative works available to society. This theory has been the driving force behind an economic vision that has expanded, beyond all recognition, the original law created by the Statute of Anne. And with this expansion, we are told that the costs associated with copyright are worthwhile because of the bounty it produces. What if this theory could be tested? After all, this is not a question of faith or morality, nor is it a statement on how humans should behave; it is a theory about how humans do behave.