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A very silly report on "fair use"
September 13, 2007
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a lobbying group for tech companies, has just issued a report called "Fair Use in the U.S. Economy." It purports to show that "the fair use economy" is larger than the "copyright economy." In 2006, the report declares, the fair use economy "accounted for $4.5 trillion in revenues and $2.2 billion in value added, roughly 16.2 percent of U.S. GDP. It employed more than 17 million people and supported a payroll of $1.2 trillion. It generated $194 billion in exports and rapid productivity growth."
Those are big numbers, to be sure. And - no surprise - the study has earned immediate huzzahs from the Internet's pirate crew, with Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow and Techdirt's Mike Masnick, among others, welcoming the appearance of the report. Google, one of the underwriters of the research, promotes the study on its public polic blog, writing that "the results of the study demonstrate that fair use is an important economic driver in the digital age."
There's a little problem, though. Even by the woeful standards of the bespoke research industry, this study is a crock of shit. It's not just bad; it's absurd. What the authors have done is to define the "fair-use economy" so broadly that it encompasses any business with even the most tangential relationship to the free use of copyrighted materials. Here's an example of the tortured logic by which they force-fit vast, multifacted industries into the "fair use" category: Because "recent advances in processing speed and software functionality are being used to take advantage of the richer multi-media experience now available from the web," then the entire "computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing industry" qualifies as a "fair-use industry." As does the entire "audio & video equipment manufacturing" business. And the entire telecommunications industry. And the entire software publishing industry. And - hey, why not? - the entire insurance industry.
Here, to illustrate the absurdity, is the full list of industries and industry sectors that the researchers include in the fair use economy:
-Internet publishing and broadcasting
-Internet service providers and web search portals
-Other information services (such as news syndicates)
-Data processing, hosting, and related services
-Computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing
-Software publishers
-Audio and video equipment manufacturing
-Video tape and disk rental
-Business to business electronic markets
-Electronic shopping
-Electronic auctions
-Computer and office machine repair and maintenance
-Computer system design and related services
-Wired telecommunications carriers
-Wireless telecommunications services
-Telecommunications resellers
-Satellite telecommunications
-Cable and other program distribution
-Other telecommunications (including radar station operations)
-Radio and television broadcasting
-Cable networks
-Printing and related support activities
-Photographic and photocopying equipment manufacturing
-Semiconductors and related device manufacturing
-Communications equipment manufacturing
-Magnetic and optical media
-Communication and energy wire and cable manufacturing
-Computer and peripheral equipment merchant wholesalers
-Computer software (packaged) merchant wholesalers
-Electric appliance, TV and radio merchant wholesalers
-Communications equipment and supply merchant wholesalers
-Electrical and electronic goods agents and brokers
-Radio, television and other electronics stores
-Computer and software stores
-Newspaper publishers
-Directory, mailing list and other publishers
-Other publishers
-Securities, commodity contracts, and investments
-Motion picture and video industries
-Sound recording industries
-Book, periodical and music stores
-Architectural, engineering and related services
-Graphic design services
-Performing arts companies
-Promoters of performing arts, sports, and similar events
-Agents and managers for artists, athletes, entertainers, and other public figures
-Independent artists, writers, and performers
-Securities and commodities exchanges
-Other financial investment activities
-Insurance carriers
-Agencies, brokerages and other insurance-related activities
-Insurance and employee-benefit funds
-Other investment pools and funds
-Legal services
-Management, scientific, and technical consulting services
-Scientific research and development services
-Education services
Whew.
I have to admit that it would never have crossed my mind to think of wire manufacturers as being part of the fair use economy. But that's just a failure of imagination on my part, I guess.
What's most amusing is that, if you took a similarly expansive view of the role of copyright, you could easily categorize all of these industries as part of the "copyright economy." (Copyrighted content goes over wires, too, doesn't it?) And it would be an equally meaningless exercise.
You can be, as I am, a strong advocate of liberal fair-use rules and a strong opponent of onerous copyright restrictions and still be appalled by this kind of fake research. Can't industry groups make their points without stretching the truth beyond recognition and, in the process, insulting everyone's intelligence? Fair use deserves better.
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