Occupy Copyright: A Law & Economic Analysis of U.S. Author Termination Rights

U.S. law grants authors a contract termination right thirty-five years after the license or transfer of their copyrights. This Article contributes to the ongoing debate over this law by providing economic perspective. Because of price changes, risk allocation, hold-up problems, and other effects on author and publisher incentives, it predicts that the economic costs of introducing termination rights will outweigh the benefits. This work concludes that the current structure of author termination rights in the United States is at odds with its political justification, as well as the utilitarian purpose of copyright law.