Statistical Analysis of Copyright Registrations

linuxizer writes "I've been poking around in Penn's Library for most of my Freshman year, looking up copyright statistics. What I found is basically what many suspected all along: extending and strengthening copyright terms has little effect on actual innovation. Perhaps most fascinating is the strong 40-year upward trend in registrations which is sharply broken in 1991 with a precipitous decline. Also included are some interesting observations about the RIAA's data. The numerous graphics should be well-enough explained that you don't need to go to the data files, but they are included if needed."

Comments

Re:Points about copyright law

[Z0mb1eman]

>Basically, we are going to listen to some sloberring acne-infested college boy tell us about copyright law?

Wait... *checks URL* This IS Slashdot, right?

*confused*

I thought that's how things always are around here...

Re:They don't teach math at Penn?

[stratjakt]

PROFESSOR WHINER

yeah this whole article is just flamebait. Dont get excited. It's not news, just a chance to spout off about big gub'ment.

Re:Here's what we'll do:

[nomad_monad]

i agree. you can get equally far on your social skills as you can on your degree. however, to be fair, i think the original poster was making a point about the educational/professional demographic that the US is moving towards, and not so much disputing the notion that academic achievement should always trump social skills at the individual level. sure, we could become a country of managers telling all those bright asian scientists what to do, but if such a situation persists over the long-term, you may end up with a geo-economic scenario analogous to that of a group of engineers saying, "Fuck this. Why do we need these dumbasses telling us what to do? Let's start our own company."