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

[Luis Villa]

Here are the four basic questions (copied from the document) and some quick comments in italics.






			
				
					"In effect the first point, which we propose as the starting point for our study,
amounts to a quantification of the contribution of works made available under
PD&OL to the economy. In order to make such quantification, we need to answer
some basic questions:


					
							Which are the sectors that produce works that are licensed under PD&OL,
and which are the sectors that use them (the proposal provides some
examples, but we need more systematic information)—is this information
available?





LV: We could create a more rigorously compiled list, but I’m not aware of “quantification” in the sense they seem to be wanting.




						

						
							Given that these works are not registered anywhere, where should we look
for data on the quantity of such works?




LV: CC has gathered numbers on this in the past; could talk to them about it?




						

						
							Do BEUC/EDRi/Wikimedia have any suggestions as to valuation methods?






LV: The best thing I’m aware of on this is http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2338563 (Economic Value of Wikipedia, by Jonathan Band), which contains a number of valuation metrics that could be extended to open culture more generally.





						

						
							“Open license” does not mean that one can do with the work whatever
one wants. Is infringement or misuse a problem for the open source
community, and if so, are there are any studies that have examined its
extent and impact? 




LV: None that I’m aware of, but I’ll ask around and get back to the list.

						

					

			

		
Luis Villa
Deputy General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext. 6810

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On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 9:00 AM, Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov
<dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> The IPR Observatory [1] of the European Commission have now officially
> included a study requested by us with the support of other civil society
> actors in their 2015 working programme. The study is on "economic
> contribution of public domain and open licensing".
> The Observatory has sent us some additional questions now that might be
> important for the final outcome. I would appreciate any comments/ideas/help
> in answering those in the best possible way. The questions can be seen in
> the PDF attachment.
> Thanks a lot!
> Dimi
> [1]https://oami.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/observatory/home
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