Copyright is not a monopoly right
It's commonly asserted that copyright is a monopoly right. This is a common starting point: in fact, the US Supreme Court, in a recent case, stated that the copyright is a monopoly right and therefore needs to be restricted. This is obviously wrong: copyright is not a monopoly right.
The word monopoly denotes dominance in a market, the market itself being defined both by geographic location and its products or services (in particular their cross-substitutability).By the time I finish writing this piece, I will have created a work which is protected by copyright and which I own. Does it give me dominance in any market? Obviously not. (I wish it did: I have always wanted to enjoy super-profits).
If copyright is not a monopoly right, what kind of right is it? Well, it’s an exclusive right. Ie. a right that confers exclusivity, just like just about any form of property. I have exclusive rights in the carrots, potatoes and apples in my fridge. I have exclusive rights over my fridge, tables, and chairs. I have exclusive rights over my car. These kinds of rights are not a big deal. We are surrounded by them.
Copyright is no different. It’s just a property right, and the property right I have over my carrots, potatoes and apples is no more a monopoly right than the property right I have in the copyright works that I create.In fact, of all the property rights that exist, copyright is the most benign, and that for two reasons.
Firstly, it’s a non-rivalrous right. Because the amount of physical things in the world is, at any one time, finite, every piece of physical matter over which I assert an exclusive right reduces the amount available for everyone else. Most forms of property are rivalrous. Land is the clearest example of this: for every piece of land that I own, there is less land available for everyone else. But copyright is the opposite of this. However many copyright works I can create, the amount of copyright works that can be created by others is not reduced.
Copyright does not consume existing materials. Copyright is non-rivalrous. The available number of copyright works is infinite.
Secondly, copyright does not restrict the creation of identical works. Everyone is free to create a new copyright work which is identical to an existing work provided they don’t do so by copying.
To conclude: copyright is not a monopoly right.