The 1709 Blog: "Do bad things happen when works fall into the public domain?"

"The conclusions that Paul [Heald] has reached is that there is little statistical evidence to support the assertions that bad things happen to works when they enter the public domain. One may argue that these studies are merely proxies; they do not really look at sales figures for example.  But, as Paul noted, the data is not really there. In the end, this is as damaging for the argument against the public domain as the results of these studies because, if there is no data to support, one way or another, the assertions about the problem of the public domain, we need to be more honest about the basis for our policy decisions."