--- begin forwarded text MIME-Version: 1.0 Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 00:13:30 -0400 Reply-To: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM> Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM> From: Alan Lewine <alewine@DCEZ.COM> Organization: Representing Myself Subject: Call for Papers: The Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property To: CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM John F. Kennedy School of Government Center for Science and International Affairs and Center for Business and Government Harvard Law School Institute for Information Technology Law and Policy Harvard University Library Council on Library Resources Coalition for Networked Information The Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA January 23-25, 1997 First Announcement and Call for Papers Harvard University is hosting this symposium to broaden and deepen understanding of emerging economic and business models for global publishing and information access and the attendant transformation of international information markets, institutions, and businesses. The goal is to provide managers in public, private, and nonprofit sectors with a practical framework for developing program strategies and assessing the efficiency and competitiveness of new information markets and institutions. It will address questions such as: --What will be the principal pricing models for information in an advanced global Internet? -- How will pricing models be affected by different technological factors and market environments? -- What will be the relationships between classic production costs, transaction costs, and the economic value of intellectual property? -- How will different pricing practices at lower layers affect the pricing of information? -- What are likely long-term trends and scenarios for different pricing models? What will be the effect of bundling or unbundling of information services? -- How will changing cost structures change the allocation of rights between authors and publishers and other intermediaries? -- How will markets for complementary products and services affect the pricing and use of information? -- What are the policy implications of different pricing models? -- How do these reflect policy values associated with different kinds of information? Background: The rapid growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web is trans- forming the way information is accessed and used in business, education, and the home. New models for distributing, sharing, linking, and enhancing information are appearing, often embodied in software or infrastructure. No change is more dramatic than the shift to user-initiated retrieval for text-based information formerly distributed in the form of physical objects by publisher-initiated manufacturing and delivery. A similar shift may be underway for sound and video. However, the considerable differences in bandwidth and storage requirements between text, images, sound, and video may dictate different cost and pricing models in the near and mid-term. As production and distribution costs decline, transaction costs and the value of intellectual property may assume greater prominence. On the other hand, standards and software may work to substantially reduce transaction costs over the long run. With barriers to entry reduced by technology, information markets may become extremely competitive, reducing margins and possibly lowering the economic value of many forms of intellectual property. The Internet and the World Wide Web are characterized by explosion of information along with an explosion of new tools for navigating information. Competition for attention intensifies as companies extend their marketing, sales, and support functions into the Internet. Useful or entertaining information may have greater value in attracting customer attention in an increasingly competitive marketplace for information. Accordingly, it has been argued that information will be valued less as intellectual property and more in terms of the access it provides to other markets and the value it adds to relationships. As a practical matter, copyright may be overshadowed by the growing use of contracts as a means of both securing value and defining expectations in continuing relationships. Positions in simple distribution chains are likely to erode as a result of disintermediation and intense competition. In particular, reduced production costs and the desire to avoid residual transaction costs may force vendors away from complex pricing models. For example, usage-based pricing may give way to subscription pricing. Such dynamics may lead to new institutional arrangements for managing life-cycle costs of information, especially in small markets where users are also producers. Similarly, as production costs decrease, the costs of information may be assimilated by the underlying infrastructure or assumed by users. This trend may be seen in the pricing of online services and in the massive volunteering of content on the World Wide Web. The Web, including software and servers, enables editorial and navigation functions traditionally performed by publishers and libraries to be performed in increased measure by individual authors and end users. Cost analysis in this environment may hinge on identification and evaluation of critical bottlenecks -- with the understanding that many technological limitations may be short-lived. Congestion may lead to new methods of supplementing point-to-point transmissions, such as caching, mirroring, and satellite broadcast. These new mechanisms may raise intellectual property and interconnection questions that may be addressed both as business and policy issues. Congestion may also hasten the implementation of type of service priority at either the network or server levels. Negotiation over quality and scope of service may become extremely complex, and vendors may be tempted to price to as many dimensions of value as possible. However, simple pricing models may have surprisingly strong appeal, as they have had in the analog environment. Sequential distribution windows for motion pictures illustrate the potential for simple price differentiation in a technologically complex environment. Price differentiation is now playing an increasingly important role in the marketing of software and databases. In fact, there may be public policy arguments for price differentiation, not only for reasons of efficiency but to enable some of level of access for those who cannot afford access under standard terms, just as public libraries have offered access for those who could not afford to buy. ***** The Information Infrastructure Project emphasizes communication and sharing of insight among scholars and practitioners with different skills and backgrounds. Papers should be written in a clear, non-technical manner (technical appendices may be permitted) for a mixed, interdisciplinary audience that will include publishers, librarians, economists, lawyers, and policy- makers. Prospective authors should submit short abstracts for review and comment as soon as possible. Extended abstracts or outlines should be submitted by October 15, 1996, to ensure consideration for the program. Acceptances of abstracts and outlines are conditional pending receipt of a satisfactory draft by December 15, 1996. Papers and supplementary material will be published as a volume in the Project's series with the MIT Press. Copyright assignment is not required, and parallel publication of individual papers in journals is encouraged. Please send paper proposals and requests for subsequent announcements to: iip@harvard.edu Or send mail to: Tim Leshan Information Infrastructure Project John F. Kennedy School of Government 79 John F. Kennedy St. Cambridge, MA 02138 617-496-1389 Fax: 617-495-5776 leshan@ksgrsch.harvard.edu -- Alan Lewine http://www.dcez.com/~alewine/ "[I]n sex as in other areas of life, beware governmental regulation." --Richard Posner, "Sex and Reason" (1992) --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender." -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard, for Bart Simpson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/