Freakonomics runs a “tweakonomics” excerpt from The Knockoff Economy

The Freakonomics blog runs an except from the book where we talk about innovation in music — specifically, how musicians copy — and tweak — other artist’s songs.  We all know these as “cover” songs. They are immensely important in our musical culture — some of the best pop music ever (Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”, anyone?) has been covers of others’ songs.  And all this innovation is made possible, in part, because American copyright law allows it to happen.  Anyone is free to record a cover version of another songwriter’s composition — as long as they pay a (very low) fee.  And the freedom to cover hasn’t stopped people from writing new songs. It’s an important case of innovation without intellectual property, one which we see (actually, hear) everyday but don’t ever really notice.