Fashion Copyrights

Great guest post over at Freakonomics on copyright issues in the fashion industry. The blogger, an expert on the fashion business, explains why fashion copyrights are counterproductive. Fashions change very quickly, especially at the high end, that are most dependent on their intellectual property. By the time the pirates come out with volume copying, the high end has already moved on. So it doesn’t really hurt.

And it also helps. The pirating brings attention to the original designer and gives him or her the credibility and authority as a top designer. So by enhancing his/her street cred, it makes his/her new desgns that much more attractive. They call this the piracy paradox, but it makes perfect sense to me.

It is a good example of how copyright law has to be designed in consideration of the economics and dynamics of the industry. Let’s hope that policymakers and activist judges don’t mess it up. And also that they generalize this approach to other areas that probably need copyright protections to be relaxed a bit – think digital music!!