Law Prof. Ian Ayers announces the publication of a new book, Optional Law: The Structure of Legal Entitlements, that will be of interest to copyright geeks. Read more about the book here: Optional Law.

Lots of people in the intellectual property field have pointed out that the law has gone overboard in extending property rights. In lots of contexts, we would do better with mandated licensing fees that give non-owners the option to use and pay a fee.

I’ve just published a book that not just formalizes the advantage of optional licenses but also shows there’s a dizzying array of optional entitlement structures that can dominate traditional notions of property. There’s even experimental results showing that people bargain more efficiently in the shadow of optional regimes than in the shadow of property rules.