On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 1:25 AM, Dimitar Parvanov
Dimitrov <
dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Salut la liste!
I had an Observatory meeting of the WG "IP in the digital world" which
will deal with our study. Had a chance to discuss things with the
Observatory's economists and we decided to engage in a more intensive
discussion over email, phone and at the annual plenary in Alicante next
month. In the room it was basically just me and the economist speaking as
no other member (i.e. none of the industry representatives) seemed to show
an interest in this one.
Here the main requests and my comments:
1. They really want us to compile a list of sectors.
I asked for a economic modelling study that assess the whole situation,
but they aren't keen on this. Apparently their budget for this for 2015 is
25.000 Euro and - I am really quoting here - they want something
"quick&credible".
Additionally they want to make this study a counterpoint to their IP
contribution study [1], which was released last year. This was also our
initial starting point, as we wanted to be able to say "yes, IP is
important but it builds up on a thriving commons". In the first study they
just used a number of industry sectors and looked at it. They proposed we
should start by taking this list and amending it as we see fit. ([2] page
27 ff.)
My feeling is that we should go for this approach as a start, but I am a
bit scared that this could limit the results not in our favour. A longer
list with sectors we know free&open is king would help. Also, the
Observatory has a tendency to do follow-up and complementary studies, so I
could very well see them continuing with such research after this initial
experiment.
What a frustratingly framed question. I am half-tempted to respond with the
list of Disney movies based on public domain works
<https://medium.com/@derekkhanna/disney-works-based-on-public-domain-eb49ac34c3da>
;)
2. They really want to know if infringements is a
problem for us
The official name of the Observatory being "EU Observatory on
Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights", they seemed really keen on
including infringements of PD&OL in the study. I said I could give them a
few case studies or examples, but hadn't heard of any studies on this.
Should we give in and let them do research on this, although it might take
focus off the economic contribution part?
If it helps them act at all, I can't see how it hurts us to have them
think about it. It's not the most frustrating mis-framing to come out of
Brussels. :)
I was pointed by an acquaintance at these studies that are specific to the
use of open source in the Android App Store (a space that is easy to study):
The press releases for the initial study and a follow-up are here:
http://www.openlogic.com/wazi/bid/187975/Research-Mobile-Apps-and-Open-Sour…
http://www.openlogic.com/news/bid/210112/OpenLogic-Code-Scan-Reveals-Increa…
I also wrote aaa 3-part blog series on the research, results, etc. here:
http://www.openlogic.com/blog/bid/223525/Apps-App-Store-and-Open-Source-Par…
http://www.openlogic.com/blog/bid/226481/Apps-App-Stores-and-Open-Source-Pa…
http://www.openlogic.com/blog/bid/230007/Apps-App-Stores-and-Open-Source-Pa…
The headline number is that they found 71% non-compliance in the first
study; down to 38% of apps non-compliant in the followup (in 2012).
I think key to this question is the 'problem' part. For Public Domain that
is easy: no it is not. At all. For the free licenses, it would require more
of an opinion survey than an economical approach. Something very
interesting, but perhaps not the kind of study they are best at? It would
(in my view) require mostly asking contributors if they are limiting their
contributions because of infringements. Interesting, and sounds like
something CC or in general open license movements (including free software)
might have investigated to get some base numbers? I wouldn't suggest to
start off with this though.
-- Lodewijk