Objectives and Organizational Framework for Launching a

Objectives and Organizational Framework for Launching a Study on

the Economic Contribution of Copyright-based Industries)

Mc Carthy MARIE

29th March 2011

Castries St. Lucia

Why are we studying the Impacts of Copyright Based industries

• 1. The short Answer is that we are now in the Knowledge Economy.

• 2.Most persons using the expression “Knowledge Economy” seem to mean that Knowledge is more important in production of goods and services from the latter part of the 20th Century and into the 21st century than before.


• I consider this explanation of “Knowledge Economy" to be false and misleading.

• In the first Place knowledge has always been important in production of goods and services and it is no different now than in the past.

• Just consider the impact on humanity of the acquisition of the knowledge to tame electricity and to produce it at will.


• This knowledge was however always bound to some physical product and the economic value of the knowledge was bound up in the physical product itself. The expansion of knowledge was expressed in the kinds of products that were produced and knowledge itself had little commercial value without the products.


• The protection for generating this kind of knowledge is provided by patent law.

• Patents of course are absolute monopolies granted to an inventor for creating new knowledge embodied in new products or new processes for producing old/and or new products.


• The real difference between knowledge and economic activity in the past and the present is this:

• Knowledge itself , disassociated from any product has become extremely valuable in the economic sphere. This knowledge, which is the expression of ideas as distinct from the ideas themselves is protected by Copyright.


• “The creative (or Copyright) industries are those industries which:

• have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.”

• Commonly accepted definition by the Department for Culture of the United Kingdom.

The Answer to My Question.

• To answer My question :

• It is important to study the impact of Copyright based industries because of the high and increasing importance of Copyright in creating tradable value in the modern economy.

Objectives of These studies

• The objectives of these studies in the Caribbean Context are :

• 1. To acquire baseline information on the sector including an assessment of the present contribution of the copyright sector to Employment, Income and trade.

• 2.To determine the areas in which our competitive advantage lie. Is it in Music? Audiovisual products? Literature? Software And IT?

Objectives of These studies

• 3. To determine the institutions needed for us to maximize opportunities where we have identified our competitive advantage. E.G creation and support of CMO’s like ECCO by the Government and its institutions.

• 4. With respect to exports the studies should give us a roadmap for an export strategy that avoids what I refer to as the Muscovado bias in the cultural industries.

Organisational Framework for the studies

• The basic organisational requirement for the successful implementation of a study on the Copyright sector is a good data set.

• In many ways measuring the impact of copyright on the economy is a data mining exercise and like any other mining activity the richer the vein of minable material in a mine the better the output will be.


• A properly balanced Supply and Use Table is a good tool with which to start. Of course more up to date the table is the more useful it will be. The SUT is particularly useful for generating the share of GDP that can be ascribed to Copyright activity.

• Regular Labour force surveys with expanded employment categorization( or sub categorisation) to allow for easier identification of employment in the copyright sectors, particularly the core copyright activities.


• A properly resourced NSO is of course a sine qua non for the achievement of the outputs mentioned. The resources for the NSO’s must include material resources such as an adequate amount of computers and appropriate software. With respect to the human resource continuous training and upgrading of skills is a must.

• Finally A change of the culture of secrecy is needed.


• As the creative Commons group likes to say:

• Information yearns to be free

Documents

Objectives and Organizational Framework for Launching a