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 _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.okfn.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
