Pricing Information Goods in the Presence of Copying

The eects of piracy on the pricing behavior of producers of information goods is studied within a uni…ed model a la Mussa-Rosen (1978). When the copying technology involves a marginal cost and no …xed cost, producers act independently. In this simple framework, we highlight the trade-o¤ between ex ante and ex post e¢ciency considerations (how to provide the right incentives to create whilst limiting monopoly distortions?). When the copying technology involves a …xed cost and no marginal cost, pricing decisions are interdependent. We investigate the strategic pricing game by focussing on some signi…cant symmetric Nash equilibria.