A Regulatory Perspective on the Interests and Motivators of Creative Individuals

Abstract

The copyright regime is based on the assessment that many, if not most, individuals are creative. To date, much of the literature assumes that copyright law is an effective instrument of innovation policy simply because the legislated rights to reproduce a creation are seen to be an incentive—even though it is acknowledged that many creators are, in fact, “intrinsically motivated”. There have been few attempts to provide a more expansive understanding of the relationship between the diverse reasons a person has to create and the law in this area. To try and correct this state of affairs, this article uses insights from regulatory theory to better understand those who produce copyrightable works. Specifically, this work discusses the motivators of creative individuals in terms of the categories of “internal motivators”, “external motivators” and “reputational motivators”. This understanding suggests that the notion of “copyright as a carrot to creators” is an overly simplistic assessment of the contexts in which individuals create.