| Summary: | The notion of ‘markets’ occupies a prominent yet ambiguous position
in copyright discourse. When the term is raised, the copyright
owner’s market tends to be taken as its implicit meaning, perpetuating
an assumption that the market needs to be protected solely to
preserve incentives to create. This dominant narrative overshadows
an important dimension of copyright markets – disseminative
competition, which is characterised by rival disseminators competing
for inputs (copyright content) and audiences (copyright consumers).
With the aid of competition law principles, this article distinguishes
competition for dissemination of content from competition for the
creation of content. It underscores the importance of dissemination
markets to a well-functioning copyright system and shows how
certain copyright doctrines substantively impact on disseminative
competition. In reframing contemporary understandings of copyright
markets, this article highlights the biases in copyright infringement
analysis that may favour incumbent content disseminators to the
detriment of a vibrant and innovative digital economy.
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