UNESCO Report On Globalisation Of Cultural Trade

A new UN report provides significant detail on the increasing flows of cultural trade worldwide. On intellectual property rights, the report appears to primarily examine copyright as a form of revenue generation.

The newly released report is entitled: “The Globalisation of cultural trade: a shift in consumption; international flows of cultural goods and services 2004-2013” [pdf]. It was published by the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The report describes shifts in the market for cultural goods and services over the years, which especially the rise of the internet.

The report relies on industry statistics and says that almost all music revenues come from copyright. It does not seem to take into account economic gains from increasing open access, for instance. It also does not appear to explore other IP rights that might be related to cultural goods such as traditional knowledge or perhaps trademarks or patents.

Nevertheless, the nearly 200-page report is chock full of data and analysis, and calls for much more research to be done.

“In sum,” it says, “a large research task lies ahead of statisticians and economists when it comes to assessing copyright law in the context of digitisation and the Internet. The complex linkages between composers, creators, performers and others in the online value and distribution chain – and the way revenues are split – complicate the measurement of creative works in a new digital context.”