material disseminated in the form of either electronic tapes and discs or video tapes and discs depending on the nature of the content. In this system both the library and some individuals would have the appropriate play-back equipment. One prototype here is a video disc system in which the video disc player has both addressing and "freeze" capabilities. The second system would eliminate the distinct, loanable "volume" as we now know it. (This is in contrast to the type or disc system where a volume is one or more tapes or discs.) Such a system might involve the inputting of and storage of complete texts into a memory that is quickly and inexpensively searched either by the user himself or by the librarian as an intermediary. The recovered information can either be displayed on a CRT console or hard copy can be produced. Neither of these two systems pose any difficulties conceptual or real -- for the optimal pricing rules described in our previous papers. In fact direct analogies exist for each of the concepts in those papers. The optimal prices depend on the costs of producing the information and the copies of it, the (price) elasticities of demand of each of the groups of information users for each of the products, and the crosselasticities of demand (or, hopefully, some more operational measure of the interrelationships of the demands). In the first system one can expect to find a higher optimal price for those copies of the discs or tapes that are sold to libraries than for those sold to individuals. This is true, in general, if the elasticity of demand of the individual buyers is higher (in absolute terms) than that of the institutional purchasers. Possibly more interesting is the conclusion of Ordover and Willig [1976] that the institutional price should be higher than the individual price if the average number of "potential buyers" is greater than one, no matter what the elasticities of demand may be. Here "potential buyers" are those members of purchasing institutions who would purchase their own copies if the institution switched from buying to not buying in response to an increase in the institutional price. Also in this system, with discs or tapes, there will be an increase in economic efficiency if charges are levied for use of the library copies. This charge might vary depending on whether the use was inhouse with library-provided readers, consoles, etc. or if the use were external after the copy had been borrowed. The deciding factors would, of course, be the relative costs to the library of in-house vs. external use and, again, the elasticities of demand. The only factor that should lead one to decide against such user charges would be if the transactions costs of levying and enforcing such charges were high relative to the sums involved. The second system the use of computer memory and peripheral devices is also amenable to In such a system much more to store the text and access it for each user the pricing systems we have described. complex pricing arrangements are not only possible but are, to some extent, already in use. For example, the contracts between the bibliographic data base providers (e.g., Chemical Abstracts, Medlars, ERIC) and the on-line information system operators (e.g., Lockheed's DIALOG and SDC's Search) often involve payments that are based on (1) yearly basic charges, (2) the length of time users are connected to the data base, and (3) the number of citations given to the users. The monitoring of the usage and output is already quite sophisticated and is relatively inexpensive. It is optimal from the point of view of economic welfare for the data base providers to be able to charge different prices to the systems operators rather than, for instance, those they might charge to a private research organization. For such price discrimination to continue, it is necessary that some restrictions be made on further resale by the original purchaser. These restrictions are currently part of the various contracts, but, if the number of systems and producers of the information were to grow, it is obvious that at some point it is more economical to replace the individual contracts with a more comprehensive system such as a copyright licensing organization. From this we can conclude that the growth of computerized information systems will cause copyright protection of the information to be stored in such systems to become more desirable for two reasons. First economic welfare can be improved by reducing the need for individual contracts between each producer of information and each system operator. And second, the cost of monitoring usage to determine the proper royalty payments is low in a high-technology system which relies on computer searching. W. J. Baumol and M. Marcus, Economics of Academic Libraries, Y. M. Braunstein and J. A. Ordover, "Economic Views of Copyright in Scientific and Technical Information Systems," New York University, 1976; excerpts are in "The Role of Transaction Costs in the Design of Royalty Pricing Schemes for STI," Appendix B, this report. J. S. Hewitt, "The Impact of OCLC," American Libraries, May 1976. F. Kilgour, et. al., "The Shared Cataloging System at the Ohio College Library Center," Journal of Library Automation, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Sept. 1972). J. A. Ordover and R. D. Willig, "On the Optimal Provision of Journals Qua Excludable Public Goods," Appendix C, this report. 12. Sponsoring Organization Name and Complete Address (Street, City, State, ZIP) National Science Foundation Division of Science Information 1800 G Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20550 15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-14143 5. Publication Date October 1977 6. Performing Organization Code 8. Performing Organ. Report No. 10. Project/Task/Work Unit No. 11. Contract/Grant No. (SIS-74-14168) 13. Type of Report & Period Covered Final 14. Sponsoring Agency Code 16. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant bibliography or literature survey, mention it here.) The findings, recommendations, and conclusions of a policy-oriented, multi-disciplinary study of copyright in computer-readable works are reported. The foundations of copyright are examined for basic principles, and the theory of public goods is applied to develop the rationale for copyright protection. The judicial history of copyright in the twentieth century is reviewed with respect to advances in information technology. The impact of technological change on judicial decisionmaking in copyright is analyzed. The problem of transaction costs in the marketplace for copyrighted works is examined and methods for the reduction of such costs are described. Models of policymaking are developed which clarify the roles of interest groups and the branches of Government, demonstrating their interactions and providing insights into possible futures. Recommendations on the conditions of copyrightability for computer-readable data bases and computer programs are presented and are based on findings of basic principles developed during the study and described in the report. 17. KEY WORDS (six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only the first letter of the first key word unless a proper name; separated by semicolons) Computer; computer program; copyright; data base; economic efficiency; information technology; policy analysis; policymaking; public goods; technological change; transaction costs. the monthly magazine of the Nation al Bureau of Standards. Still featured are special articles of general interest on current topics such as consumer product safety and building technology. In addition, new sections are designed to . . . PROVIDE SCIENTISTS with illustrated discussions DIMENSIONS There's a new look to... of recent technical developments and work in progress INFORM INDUSTRIAL MANAGERS of technology transfer activities in Federal and private labs. . . DESCRIBE TO MANUFACTURERS advances in the field of voluntary and mandatory standards. 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