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

Sat Sep 27 10:01:21 UTC 2014

2014-09-27 1:39 GMT+02:00 Luis Villa <lvilla at wikimedia.org>:

> On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 1:25 AM, Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov <
> dimitar.parvanov.dimitrov at 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-Source-Compliance
>
> http://www.openlogic.com/news/bid/210112/OpenLogic-Code-Scan-Reveals-Increasing-Open-Source-License-Compliance-Among-Mobile-Apps
>
> 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-Part-1
>
> http://www.openlogic.com/blog/bid/226481/Apps-App-Stores-and-Open-Source-Part-2
>
> http://www.openlogic.com/blog/bid/230007/Apps-App-Stores-and-Open-Source-Part-3
>
> 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
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