5.7 Million US Employees in ‘Core’ Copyright Industries

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From Publishing Perspectives:

Created in 1984, the International Intellectual Property Alliance is a private-sector coalition of five trade associations representing companies in the United States that produce copyright-protected content including computer software, films, television programs, music, books, and journals.

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[The Alliance’s latest annual report] goes over statistics that are helpful at year’s end for getting a fix on the economic magnitude behind copyright, so important to the viability of a healthy publishing industry. This is the 18th such report the alliance has issued since 1990.

Of particular interest to our international audience may be a couple of points brought forward in the material on American ‘exports in the copyrighted material sector, although publishing and books are not directly addressed here. Sales of select US copyright products in overseas markets amounted to $218.76 billion in 2019, a significant increase over previous years.

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“Despite the robust achievements of the copyright industries during the period covered in this report (and in the prior reports), significant challenges remain.

“The copyright industries derive a growing percentage of their revenue from the digital marketplace.

“Problems such as outdated copyright and related enforcement laws; inadequate or ineffective enforcement (especially against online piracy); unlicensed uses of copyright materials; and market access challenges inhibit the growth of these markets in the United States and abroad.

“Economic reports such as this one underscore what is at stake. They provide a compelling argument for more effective laws, improved enforcement, and market access regimes that will promote and foster the growth of the copyright industries throughout the world for the benefit of consumers, as well as the creators, producers, and distributors of copyrighted materials.”

Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives

3 thoughts on “5.7 Million US Employees in ‘Core’ Copyright Industries”

  1. The main bit of skepticism that I have is definitions. To quote the report itself at page 6, “The core copyright industries include those industries whose primary purpose is to create, produce, distribute or exhibit copyright materials.” Which means “employment” includes bookstore janitors, cinema concessions operators, etc. It’s not clear whether this includes Amazon warehouse workers (hint: just try get employment statistics…).

    This is too bloody broad. It’s not “core copyright” unless the specific jobs being performed are directly dependent upon copyright, which excludes all of the specific examples I cited in the preceding paragraph. This is, instead, just a retread of the film industry’s annual paeon to how important it is in Los Angeles (including everyone in porn but never mentioning them by name, which leads to interesting questions on how this report treats porn…). I would exclude any worker who never touches “the inside of the box,” so to speak. It also reminds me of Reagan-era propaganda for how important the “defense industry” is, which was rightly criticized for including manufacturers of common fasteners just because a small percentage of those fasteners were used in tanks, etc.

    In short, I’m not convinced.

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