[okfn-discuss] OKF Director Rufus Pollock in two Guardian articles this week!

Thu Oct 8 11:39:44 UTC 2009

List members may be interested to hear that Rufus's economic work has
been featured in two separate articles in the Guardian - both
published yesterday. One on the length of copyright, and one on
postcode data.

"So why hasn't there been a national debate about what is good not for
the long-term holders of copyrights (rarely the original artists) but
for the economy as a whole? The Gowers report, published in December
2006, asked what was the length of copyright that was fair to writers
and artists (who would be able to remix others' works), and also to
consumers who would benefit from lower prices and greater
availability. Gowers concluded that there was no case for extending
copyright beyond 50 years, so it urged the UK government – and the EU
– to retain that period. But if you look at the evidence within the
report, which hardly anyone did at the time, there were two
independent surveys by economists. One said the correct term to
maximise economic welfare was 21 years, almost the same as patents.
The second said it should be only seven. A separate analysis – heavy
with maths – by Rufus Pollock of Cambridge suggested about 14 years.
Gowers admitted later they had chosen 50 years because it was more
politically realistic. But the government ignored it in favour of an
extension beyond 50 years. So much for evidence-based policy."

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/07/shorter-copyright-term

"Rufus Pollock, a Cambridge economist who co-wrote a study for the
government on the economic benefit of making trading funds' data free,
calculates that making PostZon free would bring an economic benefit
50% greater than Royal Mail's present revenues."

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/07/newly-asked-question-royal-mail-postzon

Well done Rufus! :-)

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org