Kindle Price: $9.99

Save $4.00 (29%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

eBook features:
  • Highlight, take notes, and search in the book
  • In this edition, page numbers are just like the physical edition
Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the authors

Kal Raustiala
Follow
Christopher Sprigman
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Kal Raustiala (Author), Christopher Sprigman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
See all formats and editions
From the shopping mall to the corner bistro, knockoffs are everywhere in today's marketplace. Conventional wisdom holds that copying kills creativity, and that laws that protect against copies are essential to innovation--and economic success. But are copyrights and patents always necessary? In The Knockoff Economy, Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman provocatively argue that creativity can not only survive in the face of copying, but can thrive.

The Knockoff Economy approaches the question of incentives and innovation in a wholly new way--by exploring creative fields where copying is generally legal, such as fashion, food, and even professional football. By uncovering these important but rarely studied industries, Raustiala and Sprigman reveal a nuanced and fascinating relationship between imitation and innovation. In some creative fields, copying is kept in check through informal industry norms enforced by private sanctions. In others, the freedom to copy actually promotes creativity. High fashion gave rise to the very term "knockoff," yet the freedom to imitate great designs only makes the fashion cycle run faster--and forces the fashion industry to be even more creative.

Raustiala and Sprigman carry their analysis from food to font design to football plays to finance, examining how and why each of these vibrant industries remains innovative even when imitation is common. There is an important thread that ties all these instances together--successful creative industries can evolve to the point where they become inoculated against--and even profit from--a world of free and easy copying. And there are important lessons here for copyright-focused industries, like music and film, that have struggled as digital technologies have made copying increasingly widespread and difficult to stop.

Raustiala and Sprigman's arguments have been making headlines in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, Le Monde, and at the Freakonomics blog, where they are regular contributors. By looking where few had looked before--at markets that fall outside normal IP law--The Knockoff Economy opens up fascinating creative worlds. And it demonstrates that not only is a great deal of innovation possible without intellectual property, but that intellectual property's absence is sometimes better for innovation.
Previous page
  1. ISBN-13
    978-0195399783
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    August 15, 2012
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    1345 KB
  8. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Raustiala and Sprigman have some good news: copying and creativity can co-exist. Using extensive industry case studies of fashion, fonts, jokes, recipes, and other sectors, they remind us that a coherent intellectual property policy inherently involves trading off protection and imitation. Let us hope that policymakers get the message and restore balance to our intellectual property system."

-Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google

"Policymakers still-astonishingly-have a mistake at the core of their understanding of how innovation happens. This beautifully written and brilliant book by two of America's most creative thinkers corrects that mistake, and launches an incredibly important project to understand just how much law creativity requires."

-Lawrence Lessig, author of Remix and The Future of Ideas

"Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman have written a fascinating look at the surprising relationship between creating and copying. It's amazing to see the parallels across industries as diverse as cuisine, comedy and football."

-David Chang, Chef/Owner of Momofuku

"The Knockoff Economy is the most entertaining portent of doom I've read in a long time."

-Patton Oswalt, stand-up comedian and actor

"This book shines a powerful searchlight onto some neglected aspects of the intellectual property field, in the process revealing some fascinating insights that require us to rethink past assumptions about the incentives to create."

-David Nimmer, author of Nimmer on Copyright

About the Author

Kal Raustiala is Professor of Law at UCLA and the author of Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?

Christopher Sprigman is the Class of 1963 Research Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008RYSN64
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (August 15, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 15, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1345 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 56 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Kal Raustiala

    Kal Raustiala

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  2. Christopher Sprigman

    Christopher Sprigman

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Chris Sprigman is the Class of 1963 Research Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches intellectual property law, antitrust law, competition policy and comparative constitutional law. His scholarship focuses on how legal rules affect innovation and the deployment of new technologies.

    Sprigman received his B.A. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988. He attended the University of Chicago Law School, serving as a comment editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and graduating with honors in 1993. Following graduation, Sprigman clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for Justice Lourens H. W. Ackermann of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Sprigman also taught at the law school of the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    From 1999 to 2001, Sprigman served as appellate counsel in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on U.S. v. Microsoft, among other matters. Sprigman then joined the Washington, D.C., office of King & Spalding, where he was elected a partner. In 2003, he left law practice to become a Residential Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. He joined the Virginia faculty in 2005.

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
56 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Zahr Said
5.0 out of 5 stars Very fun read! Great gift for aspiring law students
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2012
Verified Purchase
This book is a brilliant, convincing, and, above all, really fun read. It will interest aspiring law students; foodies; fashionistas; lovers of standup comic; and football fans. I recommend it as gift for those expressing an interest in intellectual property, or for those buying a gift for friends and loved ones headed off to law school. Full disclosure: I'm a copyright professor at a top-20 law school and I've found this work really helpful in teaching my students. It's material that they loved reading, too. It puts the law into real-world contexts.

Raustiala and Sprigman's _Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation_ is an important book by two very well-regarded law professors who are at the forefront of an academic movement known as "low-IP." The organizing idea can perhaps most simply be boiled down like this: certain artistic and economic areas in which no intellectual property ("IP") law exists show us that other, non-legal norms operate to create some protections and to spur innovation. This book represents the culmination of work in that area that has long been persuading other academics to think differently about intellectual property law and whether it's really as necessary to promote innovation as has been presumed in the past. The authors know law, they know economics, and they know--in tremendous and authentic detail, often due to their own exhaustive field research--the industries they tackle here. So this book has serious scholarly chops as well as street cred.

But far from the regular snooze-inducing literature that can sometimes characterize legal scholarship, this book is a really enjoyable romp through popular culture by two witty authors conversant in high culture, low culture, and everything in between. In chapters that range from fashion, cuisine, and comedy, to football and fonts, Sprigman and Raustiala show us firsthand how creative cultures that lack intellectual property protection thrive without it. More than that, _Knockoff Economy_ shows how a lack of IP may actually produce creative environments that are even more innovative and productive than areas where IP operates. This is the book's central--and very powerful--insight.

Given the ease of copying in today's technological landscape, the news is really good. The authors argue that the greater the amounts of copying, the greater the range of options consumers face. For examples, the authors point us to the Korean taco, the "No Huddle Offense," kitten heels, long-form standup comedy, and molten chocolate cake as products of creative evolution in environments that allow copying to spur competitors and better serve consumers. The flipside has something important to tell us about copyright, too. For "tweakers" or innovators who work by making small improvements of or adaptations to prior works, areas governed by copyright will prove problematic, thus potentially stifling innovation if they can't be sure they are operating within the parameters of fair use.

Overall, this is an incredibly accomplished book and a pleasure to read.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Joseph
4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2012
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
The book makes the point that copying in many cases actually increases innovation, contrary to what some think that Intellectual Property (IP) must be protected always or else there will not be enough incentive (money) for people to make important new innovations. Sure, sometimes IP must be protected, but the author tries to show, quite well, that it is overused and in many cases restricts innovation, along with having other negative effects. From the book, I took note of the following.....

1. Fashion is an area with little IP protection and the copying thrives along with innovation and profits in the industry, and actually improves the whole industry. Copying is the way trends develop and the pioneer gains reputation in the process which can translate into even more for the pioneer, than if the original product was protected via copyright. And, really it is impossible to protect most things as just slight changes to a product can always be done defeating a copyright, anyway. Not to mention the costs of lawsuits, etc for the pioneer to try and protect something, in time,and money. Also, the speed of the copying hastens fashion cycles, making more innovation and profits- induced obsolescence..

2. As for morality, unlike stealing a car, stealing an idea still leaves the originator with the idea, plus also since someone else has the idea there is greater chance for innovation, improvement of the idea.....this brings up the term "piracy paradox."

3. Cuisine is another area, with little IP protection, which thrives because of the copying, encouraging many variations/innovations like the Korean taco - LA's Korean Tacos in a Truck - Kogi. The recipe can be copyrighted, but the "built food" can't because it is so easily changed in minute ways. Chefs can't protect food concoctions, but can the look and feel of a restaurant.

4. Comedy, also rife with stealing, but slightly different presentations are what makes comedy thrive even more. An example is Louis C.K and Dane Cook.

5. Football, also.....can't copyright plays, yet football thrives like never before. Plus, the originator still holds an advantage by being the first - even if another team copies the play, the team might not have the kinds of players best to execute it and would take years of drafting, trading players, new coaches, etc to match the originator's team.

6. The financial industry, also. Even with copying the originator, by reputation and lead time can gain advantages which others can never match.

7. The computer database industry, also. Can't copyright data, but the ways it can be organized. e.g. Lexis-Nexis,.Factiva.

8. The VCR actually created new industries, like video rental, also new revenue streams for the maker of films.

9. "Useful articles" is a benchmark in copyright law - a dress is useful, a painting is not therefore can copyright. Though, there are special cases, a dress which is more ornamental than functional might lead to special protection. A printed fabric is protected, but the cut and style aren't. Also "trade dress" is protected, the packaging for instance, but not necessarily the product inside. So, trademarks, brands and logos are protected and can increase the value of its products/services even if they are easily copied, in fact copying actually can increase the values.

10. Positional goods - those which create status, like trademarks, logos.

11. Also, copying can spur innovation, what lawyers call "derivative works," tweaking of the original.

12. Copying can also lower the consumer's knowledge costs, by seeing trends happen right before their eyes - also called "anchoring."

13. Social norms can protect IP better than laws sometimes, like with comedians, chefs, etc.

14. The book also discusses "first mover" advantages and disadvantages.

15. For music, can make exact copies, but can't reproduce the performance, live session/concert, etc, so the performance aspect is thriving even more despite the copying, etc. Also, some restaurants won't allow takeout or home delivery.

17. Open source software is discussed. Wikipedia more successful than Microsoft's Encarta. Linix operating system also has led to a new company, Redhat. Plus, creates competition to put pressure on Microsoft, etc to keep improving their products.

18. Fonts are also discussed, zillions of different ones, lots of copying and tweaking....plus, the usefulness test, can't print w/o them, so only certain ones can be protected, so creativity thrives, creating more and more fonts.

Anyway, the book does give one a better understanding of the effects of copying, which it seems more often than not increases creativity, innovation and overall prosperity. After reading it, I think my understanding of IP and its effects is better.
Helpful
 Report
Rubi Rafael Breton
2.0 out of 5 stars Too repetitive.
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great ideas but the authors try to pass them on by repeating the same theories and examples. It get boring after a while.
Helpful
 Report
tuesday
5.0 out of 5 stars great dive into the creative side of food and fashion!
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2023
Verified Purchase
engaging, eye-opening, and tons of fun examples from yoga to football to cocktails.
Helpful
 Report
Edward Leamer
5.0 out of 5 stars Real Evidence about Imitation and Innovation
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2013
Verified Purchase
Economists like myself know a lot about mathematical models of imitation and innovation but know little about how the real world deals with the threat of knockoffs with laws or otherwise. This highly readable book deals with fashion and jokes and restaurant meals, as well as movies and music. You cannot guess how each setting deals with imitation, can you? Read this book. You will enjoy it. It's not just for lawyers and economists!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

DIOMIDES MAVROYIANNIS
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, accessible and fun.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 3, 2014
Verified Purchase
On a surface its a very simple book about a plethora of innovative industries which somehow manage to survive without the help of governmental regulation. On the overall message, the book draws very little theoretical frameworks but it perhaps does not want to stir controversy. I'm even amazed to hear legal scholars arguing against the need for the law to interfere.

There's quite a lot to like hear, I can easily recommend chapters of the book(they are fairly self-contained) to enthusiasts of specific industries, such as fashion, cooking, comedy, etc, but its perhaps not the most interesting from cover to cover.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report