Proprietà intellettuale e distribuzione di libri su piattaforme digitali

The publishing sector has been affected by the digital revolution in a variety of ways. Firstly, new economic players such as Amazon have changed the market of books distribution and now pose a serious threat to the competitive structure of that market, as recent antitrust investigations show. Secondly, the digitization of books has created an alternative way for customers to access to literary works outside of the market mechanisms, nevertheless raising copyright concerns. Lastly, the bargaining power of authors and publishers have been heavily affected by the possibility for authors to publish their works without the intermediation of the publishers. The paper briefly examines the three aspects mentioned above and provides a perspective of the evolution of the publishing sector.