Study: Fair Use Drives Large Part of US Economy

angry tapir writes "Industries that rely on fair use exceptions to U.S. copyright law have weathered the recent slow economy better than other businesses, according to a new study released by a tech trade group. The fair use industries, including consumer device makers, software developers, search engines and news organizations, had US$4.5 trillion in revenue in 2009, up from $3.4 trillion in 2002, according to the study, commissioned by the Computer and Communications Industry (CCIA) Association. Fair use businesses make up about 17 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, according to the study. The study shows the importance of fair use exceptions in copyright law, said Ed Black, CCIA's president and CEO."

Comments

Biased drivel!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Please, please, "Industries built on Intellectual Property Theft have further imperiled other sectors of the economy during the recent economic downturn."

xoxo, RIAA/MPAA.

Reduced Revenue

[Jason Levine]

Ah, but if we had extremely restrictive copyright rules in place benefiting big companies (where "big companies" = RIAA/MPAA and not bigger, low-copyright companies like clothing designers), that $4.5 trillion would have been $89.6 quadrillion.*

* Study funded by the RIAA/MPAA. Figured based on completely unbiased** mathematical modeling.***

** Where "unbiased" means "completely biased."

*** "mathematical modeling" means "we pulled some big numbers out of our posteriors."