Os bens de informação e o problema da primeira cópia

Abstract

The article presents a theoretical exploratory essay of information goods, which is the category of intensive information products wherein digitalized can be dissociated from the physical package in which they are delivered, a fact that diminishes marginal costs, thanks to the dramatic change in the electronic production and distribution cost structure. Considering the comprehension of the specificity of the information goods's cost structure, the so-called first-copy problem arises. This announces the existence of negligible marginal costs of production, once the original copy has already been produced. At last, the paper presents one important implication to the firms resulted from the first-copy problem: the traditional cost-based pricing inadequacy, which requires new organizational practices.

Information goods; price; cost; internet; eletronic commerce