Study: Fair Use of IP Benefits Economy
April 27, 2010
| 12:43 PM
A new study released Tuesday argues that while much attention is placed on protecting industries that create intellectual property, more focus should be placed on ensuring the future growth of firms that benefit from fair use of IP and produce economic benefits for the U.S. economy.
"While policy makers devote significant attention to copyright infringement, exceptions to copyright protection also promote innovation and are a major catalyst of U.S. economic growth," according to the study released by the Computer & Communications Industry Association. "Specific exceptions to copyright protection under U.S. and international law, classified here under the broad heading of 'fair use,' are vital to
many industries and stimulate growth across the economy."
The report was conducted for CCIA by the economic consulting firm Capital Trade Inc. and was based on data from 2007. The study found that fair-use dependent industries combined grew faster than the economy as a whole between 2002 and 2007, rising 36 percent during this period. From 2002-2007, revenues grew from $3.4 trillion to $4.7 trillion. The study also noted that the industry contributes significantly to U.S. employment, with firms that benefit from fair use employing about one out of every eight U.S. workers. In addition, it also claimed that exports from companies that benefit from fair use grew by 41 percent between 2002 and 2007.
Companies that the study defined as dependent on fair use of IP include manufacturers of consumer devices that allow individual copying of copyrighted programming, educational institutions, software developers, and Internet search and Web hosting providers.
"Broader regulation of economic activity by copyright might encourage additional creativity, but it will deter certain types of technology innovation, and may undermine competition and free expression," CCIA President Ed Black said in the study's preface. "Our information policy must therefore balance the incentives that IP regulation creates against the disincentives that result."
However, Copyright Alliance Executive Director Patrick Ross, whose group represents a broad range of IP creators, disputed the report's findings, saying it is based on an overly broad definition of companies that benefit from IP and includes firms that only occasionally engage in fair use of IP.
"Missing is a recognition that in every single case, fair use builds upon an existing, original copyrighted work. Without that creation, there is no fair use to practice," Ross said. He added that the report unnecessarily pits creators of IP against other innovators. "If everyone in the economic food chain is to succeed, then high-quality, professionally developed creative works must continue to be available, and that will only happen if copyright is respected and creators are able to earn a living from their work," he said.
Categories:
Intellectual Property
Join the Discussion
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus