Category Empirical Research

Comments to the Mexican Senate on Copyright Provisions in the NAFTA Renegotiation

I am here to speak about the importance of including provisions in NAFTA to protect the abilities of countries to have general and open public interest copyright exceptions. All three countries have such exceptions to varying degree. And all three are under threat from the agenda of some copyright holders in international forums.

Re:Create Report – Unlocking the Gates: America’s New Creative Economy

[Re:Create] Over the span of just two decades, the internet has unlocked the gates to the new creative economy, empowering nearly 15 million Americans to create their own content and earn billions of dollars in revenues from posting online. Internet platforms like Amazon Publishing, Instagram, Etsy and YouTube have been driving forces behind the growth and expansion of the dynamic, multibillion-dollar new creative economy... An estimated 14.8 million Americans used the following nine platforms in 2016 to earn income from their independent, personal creations. These independent creators earned an estimated $5.9 billion in 2016 from their creations.

Behind the Number: A Review of Index Methodologies to Improve Innovation Measurement in Africa

[Islam Hassouna] Abstract: This paper reviews the methodologies of 16 indices in innovation, information and communication technologies, economic environment, governance, and development. It looks at the different techniques used by these indicators to aggregate data into a single number. The paper presents index structure, data, weighing of indicators, assessment, and ends with a focus on the measurement of innovation in the reviewed indices.

My Comments to USTR for the 2018 Special 301 review

PIJIP’s research indicates that American firms operating overseas in industries that rely on copyright limitations enjoy better outcomes on average when our trading partners’ limitations are more open – defined as being open to the use of any type of work, by any user, or with a general exception that is open to any purpose subject to protections of the legitimate interests of right holders. Econometric research on both the activities of foreign affiliates of U.S. firms and service exports by U.S. firms illustrate this conclusion.  At the same time, firms in the more traditional “copyright sectors” (i.e. – music, movies, and printed media), do not seem to be negatively affected by greater balance and openness in copyright limitations.

Copyright and Creative Incentives: What We Know (and Don’t)

[Christopher Jon Sprigman] Abstract: The dominant justification for copyright in the United States is consequentialist. Without copyright, it is claimed, copyists will compete away the profits from new artistic and literary creativity, thereby suppressing incentives to create new artistic and literary works in the first place. This is a sensible theory. But is it true? On that question, we have little evidence.