[Announcement by Ellen Broad] Today the Australian Digital Alliance published important economic research which found that flexible and technology neutral copyright laws will, over time, add $600 million in annual productivity gains to the Australian economy.
These findings are contained in two reports prepared for the Australian Digital Alliance by Lateral Economics, titled “Exceptional Industries” and “Excepting the Future.” The reports calculate for the first time the value of the copyright ‘exceptions’ sector – that is, those industries who rely on copyright exceptions to deliver goods and services – and value it at $182 billion per annum, or 14% of Australia’s GDP. The ‘copyright exceptions sector’ includes education and research institutions, libraries and cultural institutions, digital, internet and web hosting providers as well as producers of copyright enabling devices such as mp3 players.
You can access the research at – http://www.digital.org.au/content/LateralEconomicsReports. Importantly, the research finds that more flexible, technology-neutral copyright laws would make a substantial contribution to Australia’s economic growth and innovation with negligible downsides for content owners. The research stresses that flexible exceptions function to the extent that they do not discourage the creation of new content.
If you have any questions about the research, or would like to meet to discuss it further, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 02 6262 1273 or at ebroad@nla.gov.au<mailto:ebroad@nla.gov.au>. I hope it serves as a useful resource to inform future policy positions.
