Non-Governmental Copyright Protection in a Music Market

We consider non-governmental copyright protection in a music market in a game theoretical framework. Music composers voluntarily form a non-governmental association to prevent illegal uses of music and to impose music fees collectively. We prove that the formation of an association increases social welfare when differences in composers' abilities are large enough. We also show that a uniform pricing rule, currently employed by the association in Japan, is desirable from the welfare viewpoint than a non-uniform pricing rule where members can set music fees individually to maximize their private profits.