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1 Rev. Econ. Rsch. on Copyright Issues 5 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/rvwoecrh1 and id is 1 raw text is: Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues, 2004, vol. 1(1), pp. 5-15 THE WIPO GUIDE ON SURVEYING THE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF THE COPYRIGHT INDUSTRIES DIMITER GANTCHEV ABSTRACT. In July of 2002, the World Intellectual Property Organisation or- ganised a working group of economists to study the methodologies that are appropriate when attempts are made to measure the economic contribution of copyright to a national economy, with the final objective being to produce a guide-book that will enable future studies to be made, all within a common methodological framework. Dimiter Gantchev, a consultant with WIPO, was encharged with the task of writing the resulting Guide-book. 1. INTRODUCTION Recently the issue of copyright protection has attracted considerable attention in the public policy debate. Different arguments are brought into this debate, some of them questioning the very basic ideas underlying intellectual property. Those who argue that copyright protection should be significantly modified, if not abandoned all together, tend to neglect the fact that copyright today contributes to wealth creation in many different ways. The relationship between copyright as a legal mechanism for protecting the property rights in literary and artistic works, and economic life has not always been obvious.' For that matter a growing number of researchers have been involved in proving the link between copyright and the economic performance of nations. One of the possible paths for demonstrating the economic importance of copyright is through studying the multiple economic effects that it produces in terms of creating value-added, jobs and trade. Surveying and measuring the economic contribution of copyright is not a new topic. Research in this field has been done in a number of countries such as the United States of America, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Finland, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, the MERCOSUR countries and many others. This re- search has provided impressive empirical evidence on the contribution of copyright- based economic activities. However, many issues surrounding these studies have made it difficult to compare their results and to use them as a basis for launching new research. Governments and civil society organizations have indicated the need for a tool that could assist them in carrying out similar research in the future. Against this background the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched the preparation of a set of recommendations on surveying the economic contribution of the copyright-based industries. In doing so WIPO invited a group The views expressed in this article are personal and reflect the author's experience in his work on the WIPO Guide on Surveying the Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries. 1When referring to copyright it is understood that the notion of related rights is also included in the broader notion of copyright. Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1146190

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