Spell ICIP
Intellectual Property law in the US has been getting tanglier and tanglier, what with Copyright extensions, fair use questions, the open source explosion, and the advent of digital technology that makes remixes and mashups into viable artistic expression. One thing advocates of the current (much too tight, in my opinion) IP regime keep trotting out is these figures 750,000 lost jobs, and $250 billion in lost revenue.
Sounds like a lot. Only problem is, those numbers appear to be made up. The article is good, and you should read it, but here’s the nut:
“Neither figure is terribly plausible on its face. As Wired noted earlier this week, 750,000 jobs is fully 8 percent of the current number of unemployed in the United States. And $250 billion is more than the combined 2005 gross domestic revenues of the movie, music, software, and video game industries.”
Besides, do you really want to discourage masterworks of creative re-allocation like The Other Family?
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