The "fair use economy" is enormous, growing, and endangered by the relatively tiny entertainment industry - Boing Boing

The IT industry's US lobby group has released a report calculating the size of the "fair use economy" in the US -- all the businesses that rely on fair use, including web hosting companies, private schools, search engines and many others. The total for 2007 (the last year for which stats are available) is a whopping $4.7 trillion -- one sixth of US GDP -- with over 17 million people employed.

The report is a counterpoint to those crazy Hollywood stats that show that every job in America will disappear unless copyright is extended to infinity, all network connections are surveilled, and every infringer is fined her entire net worth and stuck in jail.

See original: Del.icio.us The "fair use economy" is enormous, growing, and endangered by the relatively tiny entertainment industry - Boing Boing