Dear reader
Thanks to my friend the 'IPKat', I was alerted to the fact that the Directorate General for Internal Market and Services of the European Commission released its Report on the 9,500 responses to the its Public Consultation on the Review of EU Copyright Rules.
You'll find all your favourite topics, including copyright exceptions and harmonisation, territoriality, the workings of the 'making available' right amongst many others. In my next post, I am going to comment on the debate about whether the 'exhaustion' principle and whether it should apply to works in digital form.
But before getting entangled in the policy detail, a really thought provoking paper I read recently made me think about the bigger policy picture and the relationship of policy making and innovation. That, after all, should be the driver behind copyright policy.
The paper is entitled 'Innovation 'as Growth Policy: the challenge for Europe', by Mariana Mazzucato & Carlota Perez, published by University of Sussex as part of the SPRU Working.Paper Series. You can find it here. The paper isn't about copyright per se but I was struck by this in the abstract: The advanced world is facing a crucial moment of transition. We argue that a successful outcome requires bringing innovation to the centre of government thinking and action and that, in order to do this, we must apply our knowledge of how innovation occurs."
The paper discusses 'green growth', a much broader concept than green technologies. I commend the paper to you for 'big picture' thinking, stimulating thought about copyright's role in a flourishing and as a driver of 'green growth'. Here is a passage from the article:
Green growth is more than just low carbon and renewable energies. From a technological point of view, renewables alone do not constitute a synergistic technology system. There is not enough technological convergence in knowledge, suppliers, engineering or skills between solar, wind, wave, geothermal or hydroelectric energy equipment. In order to benefit from all the potential synergies, the environmental challenge must be seen with a wider lens. Apart from the technologies that enable flexibility and interaction in the space of renewable energy, such as batteries, smart grids and the like, the green direction would have to encompass what can be termed green growth. This would include conservation; pollution control; reduction of material content per product; designing for durability; replacing products, possession and waste with services, rental and maintenance and recycling, respectively; promoting the flourishing of the creative economy; making cities more liveable and less polluting; revamping transport systems and the built environment; promoting collaborative and sharing economies; focusing on health (including preventive and personalised medicine); and promoting all forms of education, in and out of schools. This type of growth implies a redefinition of the optimal production practices and a different view of the ‘good life’, shaping the desires and aspirations of the majority. In other words, green growth involves a gradual transformation of the entire economy, reversing the mass production and consumption patterns of the previous revolution and making it cost effective and profitable to introduce a wide range of innovative changes in production and lifestyles that would increase sustainability and reduce carbon, while improving the quality of life for all."
Have a good week. In my next post, I will take a look at the the concept of 'exhaustion' as mentioned in the EU Report, and its relevance to emerging subscription services in the digital content market.
Have a good week,
Laurie Kaye
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