Spanish Abstract: El origen de los derechos de autor se remonta al siglo XVIII, pero su analisis economico es mas reciente. El trabajo de Plant de 1934 dio inicio a una rama de estudio especializada. El articulo traza un esbozo historico de esta especialidad considerando las controversias y enfoques que delimitan su ambito, asi como el principal desafio que hoy enfrentan tales derechos, la copia no autorizada.English Abstract: Even though copyright is an institution which dates back to the 18th century, the economic analysis of copyright is relatively new; paradoxically it was not until 1934 with Plant’s work when copyright economics started to emerge as a specialized field. This paper aims to draw an historical outline of copyright economics as a new area of economic analysis, focusing on its dilemmas and approaches, as well as on the main challenge for this institution in the digital era, unauthorized copy.
