Fair Use, Foul Report, Dark Secret

The CCIA has come up with the report that shows the Fair Use laws (ie taking small pieces of Other People's IP and incorporating it in your own work) accounts for 1/6th of the US economy.

Nick Carr rightly takes the calcs to task, but (unusually for him) imho misses the wood for the trees in that even if the number is too high, it has to be a heck of a lot lower for the overall point not to stand, and that (to quote the report):

“Much of the unprecedented economic growth of the past ten years can actually be credited to the doctrine of fair use, as the Internet itself depends on the ability to use content in a limited and nonlicensed manner. To stay on the edge of innovation and productivity, we must keep fair use as one of the cornerstones for creativity, innovation and, as today’s study indicates, an engine for growth for our country”

This dark secret is that basically nicking bits of other people's IP is how the US got a lot of its technology, techniques (and trademarks) from Europe in the 19th (and even 20th) century, what China (and many other growing economies) are up to today, and pretty much how all new industries have grown - including Web x.0. (This is a nice little piece on the matter, including problems with overstrong copyright, patent and IP law - for e.g, the steps the US had to take to prevent over-zealous patent law from killing the World War 1 US aircraft industry.)