Ars Technica has coverage of a Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) report which examines the value of Fair Use to the US economy. Nate Anderson writes:
The CCIA report's numbers are staggering. The "fair use economy" accounted for 23 percent of all US real economic growth between 2002 and 2007. Fair use industries (core and non-core combined) generated $4.7 trillion in 2007. And "about one out of every eight workers in the United States is employed in an industry that benefits from the protection afforded by fair use."
New Zealand has very limited “fair dealing” laws, effectively limited to research education, , review, criticism, news reporting, recording for the purpose of time shifting, and more recently format shifting of sound recordings. Would New Zealand benefit from broader “fair use” legislation, which allows copying for a limited and "transformative" purpose? This would be a hard fight. It is clear in the recently ACTA draft that numerous restrictions on use of copyrighted works are in abundance, but exceptions are non-existant. From past leaked ACTA drafts we know that the US is the driving force behind this move to limit fair use by other countries far more than they currently enjoy themselves. This is no more evident than in the International Intellectual Property Alliance (an organisation including the MPAA and RIAA) report slamming India’s Copyright Amendment which enshrines consumers’ rights to fair use.
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