Yale Journal of Law & Technology
Volume 9, 2006-2007 Fall Issue
Copyright Distributive Injustice
By Daniel Benoliel
Daniel Benoliel, Copyright Distributive Injustice, 9 Yale Journal of Law & Technology 128 (2006).
Copyright is a legal field that is not distinctively designed for redistribution. And yet, numerous fairness scholars and other critics of the economics paradigm quite markedly claim that copyright law should be based upon some measure of distribution, rather than efficiency. This article argues that, subject to narrow exceptions, copyright law should not promote distributive justice concerns and that other, more efficient areas of law such as taxation and welfare programs should do so instead. The essay focuses on the leading classes of distributive injustice that have emerged in the present day Internet: poor infringers, poor creators and wealthy copyright industries. At least in these classes of individuals, this essay argues, redistribution through copyright law offers no advantage over redistribution through the income tax system and other transfer mechanisms and laws and typically is less efficient in doing so.