Do weaker copyrights really increase economic growth?

[Commentary] The Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based “think tank for the 21st century,” recently released a report titled “The 2015 intellectual property and economic growth index: Measuring the impact of exceptions and limitations in copyright on growth, jobs and prosperity” (hereafter the “IP Index Report”). It claims that analyses of eight developed countries reveal positive, statistically significant correlations between a country’s overall rate of economic growth and the “flexibility” of its copyright laws. The SFEER-Index method of assessing national copyright “flexibility” is legally flawed. It concluded that the US has, by far, the most “flexible” national copyright laws of the eight countries studied. That is wrong.

But, taken as a whole, US copyright laws are almost uniquely “inflexible” because they increase both the risk of error and its potential financial consequences. Were this not true, then rational, sophisticated copyright owners and lawyers who could challenge Internet-based infringements in either the US or, say, France, should be rushing to sue in France.

[Tom Sydnor is the former Director of the Center for the Study of Digital Property at the Progress & Freedom Foundation]