Google on what is driving creativity and innovation in the digital economy

• Author: Fred Von Lohmann
• Position: Copyright Director at Google

Let’s look at four examples from today’s digital economy: platforms, private copying, remixing and machine learning. What ties these seemingly disparate subjects together? In all four cases, sensible limitations on copyright play a key role in creating incentives for creators and innovators. These incentives, in turn, spur more creativity and investment, just as sound copyright policy should.

Platforms

Today, more than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each minute. Most of this new creativity would not have occurred but for the existence of online platforms like YouTube that allow amateur and professional creators to reach global audiences. Similar explosive growth in creative output can be seen on many other online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, where more than 1.8 billion new photos are posted every day. Software developers are writing more software than ever before, thanks to new opportunities made possible by platforms like GitHub, Apple’s iTunes App Store and Google’s Play App Store. Writers and journalists are finding their voice on platforms like Blogger, Medium and Tumblr. New musicians are thriving on BandPage, SoundCloud and, of course, YouTube. In short, creativity has enjoyed a sudden and remarkable growth spurt. Why? A big part of the reason is the plethora of new online platforms that enable creators to find audiences at low or no cost.

And when it comes to online platforms, copyright law is at the center of the story. Were it not for sensible copyright “safe harbors”, these platforms would not exist today in their present form. The United States, for example, enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998, which limits the copyright liabilities of online service providers in exchange for their implementing measures, such as “notice-and-takedown”, to assist rights holders in combating online infringement. Europe adopted similar “safe harbors” in 2000, and more recently this approach has been adopted in a number of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. The online platforms that are spurring a flood of new creativity depend on copyright accommodations like these.

Private copying

Is there anything more natural in today’s digital environment than expecting that you will be able to access all of your personal files from any device, in any location? Rigid application of copyright laws, however, would treat these everyday activities as potential infringements.

Fortunately, most modern...