A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers into the costs and benefits of a ‘fair use’ scheme in Australia has now been published.
Commissioned by Screenrights, APRA AMCOS, PPCA, Copyright Agency | Viscopy, Foxtel and News Corp Australia, the report analyses the potential impacts of the introduction of fair use provisions as recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission.
The report finds evidence of significant costs from fair use without any evidence of corresponding benefits. In particular, the supposed increase in innovation as a result of fair use is not found in the economic data.
The study takes in two cases – Canada and Singapore – real life economic experiments on the effects of introducing a ‘fair use’ scheme or similar provision.
In Canada, the effects included the closure of a major domestic educational publisher and the closure of a collecting society.
In Singapore, the change was linked to a 50% decline in growth in copyright industries.
The report finds significant cost associated to the administration of fair use based on these international examples.
To download a full copy of the report, click here.
