Creating Economy: Enterprise, Intellectual Property, and the Valuation of Goods

Townley (Univ. of St Andrews, UK), Roscoe (also Univ. of St. Andrews), and Searle (Goldsmiths, Univ. of London, UK) look at how how intellectual property (IP) such as books, films, games, pay-per-view channels, concerts, and plays and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) such as copyrights, trademarks, and licensing can affect the economic viability of creative industries. Roughly speaking, these industries are theater, publishing, television production and broadcasting, film, and music. Large corporations, promoters, distributors, marketing professionals, and agents involved with IP can exploit and fail to protect those who create it. IPR protections are more difficult to manage, especially on the internet where unauthorized copies of IP can be easily and quickly distributed. The authors interviewed 122 leaders in creative industries and found that creating the perfect balance between artistic and commercial concerns is difficult and has to take into consideration factors such as risk, differentiation, and pricing. One lengthy chapter focuses on how to protect IPs and realize financial rewards. The book draws on the language of sociology and economics. Given that and the invocation of various theories, the book will serve best as a literature review for specialists.