IEL – International Programme in Institutions,

comments and critiques.) This paper applies some hints coming from the literature concerning default rules and contractual menus to the field of copyright (with a particular attention to the role of Creative Commons or similar modular copyright licenses). The paper discusses the efficiency of the current legal regime, which is automatically granting (without any formality) full copyright to authors of intellectual works. The analysis would encourage the introduction of some formalities in order to enjoy full copyright, but changing the existing “no formalities ” default is likely incompatible with the literal text of the Berne Convention. For this reason, I propose a “second best ” solution, compatible with the Berne Convention. Without eliminating the current “all rights reserved default”, the law could favour the adoption of alternative copyright regimens just by explicitly recognizing a menu of alternative rules (like the modules of Creative Commons licences) and some simple altering rules, to shift from the full copyright default to these alternative regimes (without reducing the available level of freedom of contract). The simple existence of Creative Commons licenses is already changing the licensing choices of several authors, but legislators and reputable public institutions can use law, or lower level (even internal) regulations, in order to economize in transaction costs associated to the adoption of some of these licenses.