Re: [Advocacy Advisors] Questions on Economic Contribution of Public Domain and Open Licensing

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.

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?

3. They are grateful for any help or pointers, especially on evaluation methods Their economists seem a bit... excited to tackle a completely new field for them. Frankly speaking, they are a bit usure what to do, which is why they want to stick to a limited list of sectors. They are also asking for advice on evaluation we might give them. I promised to point them to the 'Wikipedia evaluation study' and the Polish 'study on the reuse value of open data'. Anything else we might pitch in?

Feel free to share this with your circles. Also, we'll be integrated and get to comment pretty much every step of the way, so there will be many opportunities to contribute and to nudge things in our direction. Thanks for reading, Dimi [1]https://oami.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/observatory/ip-contribution [2] https://oami.europa.eu/tunnel-web/secure/webdav/guest/document_library/obse… 2014-09-19 20:18 GMT+02:00 Timothy Vollmer <tvol(a)creativecommons.org>rg>: _______________________________________________ Advocacy_Advisors mailing list Advocacy_Advisors(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors