About $435 billion according to economist Dean Baker in his new book Rigged, This strengthening of copyright law and altering its structure to adjust to digital technology and the Internet is interesting not only because of the costs involved for the larger economy but also because it highlights alternative ways in which society adapts to technological change. Technological change has destroyed many sectors of the economy. The spread of digital cameras essentially destroyed the traditional film industry, causing the collapse of two major U.S. corporations, Kodak and Polaroid, and leading to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. While the collapse of these companies and the job losses were unfortunate, no one would have considered it a reasonable strategy to block the spread of digital cameras. He continues a few paragraphs later with, Table 5-6 shows projected 2016 spending and potential savings in areas where the costs of current monopolies are likely to be largest. Savings for recorded music and video material as well as recreational books are pegged here at 50 percent, under the assumption that the tax-credit system will make available a vast amount of free writing, music, and video material. Savings on educational books are pegged at 70 percent, under the assumption that the bulk of textbooks will be produced through the publicly funded system. The savings for prescription drugs are based on the calculation in Table 5-3 (see below). Savings in newspapers and periodicals, motion pictures, and cable TV are pegged at 20 percent. (With cable, many people may opt to rely on the Internet and cancel cable subscriptions.) The figure for medical equipment is loosely derived from the earlier calculation in Table 5-3; it is larger here because this figure reflects spending to purchase the equipment rather than the fees charged to patients. The total potential savings are $ 435 billion, or 2.4 percent of GDP.
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