Digitization has transformed how users find and use copyrighted goods, but many existing legal options remain difficult to access, possibly leading to infringement. In a field experiment, we contact firms that are caught infringing on expensive digital images. E-mails to all firms include a link to the licensing page of the infringed image; for treated firms, we add links to a significantly cheaper licensing option. Making infringers aware of the cheaper option leads to a 14-fold increase in the ex-post licensing rate, albeit from an extremely low baseline for the control firms. Two additional experimental interventions, designed to reduce search costs for (i) price and (ii) product information, also have large positive effects. Our results suggest that ex-post monetization (e.g., licensing after use) may expand the market, and that rights holders can create value by minimizing search and transactions costs.

中文翻译：

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侵权使用作为合法消费的途径：来自现场实验的证据

数字化改变了用户查找和使用受版权保护的商品的方式，但许多现有的法律选择仍然难以获得，可能导致侵权。在现场实验中，我们联系了那些被发现侵犯昂贵数字图像的公司。发送给所有公司的电子邮件均包含指向侵权图像许可页面的链接；对于接受处理的公司，我们添加了指向更便宜的许可选项的链接。让侵权者意识到更便宜的选择可以使事后许可率提高 14 倍，尽管对照公司的基线极低。另外两项实验干预措施旨在降低（i）价格和（ii）产品信息的搜索成本，也产生了巨大的积极影响。我们的结果表明事后货币化（例如使用后许可）可能会扩大市场，