Copyright Cos. Boost U.s. Economy Most

WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. copyright industries contribute more to the American economy than any other manufacturing sector and remain first in foreign sales and exports, according to the 1999 economic report of U.S. copyright industries.
According to this year's report from the International Intellectual Property Assn. (IIPA), in 1997 U.S. copyright industries contributed an estimated $348.4 billion to the economy, accounting for 4.30% of the gross domestic product (GDP). That's an increase of 7.2% from 1996's $324.8 billion.
Government statistics usually lag up to two years due to the time involved in collecting the data and authenticating projections against actual sales. According to an IIPA spokesman, the government is restructuring its system for tracking industries and promises to be more up-to-date starting with next year's statistics.
The figures, released Dec. 16, show the muscular growth of the copyright industries in the past 20 years. Between 1977 and 1997, the growth rate of value added to the GDP by copyright industries was 241%.
According to the report, U.S. record companies; film and video studios; music publishers; book, magazine, and newspaper publishers; computer software companies; and other copyright-related industries led foreign sales and exports with a total of $66.85 billion.
The report says 1997 foreign sales/exports for the record industry were valued at $10.01 billion; for the motion picture, TV, and video industry, $12.34 billion; for computer software, $40.28 billion; and for newspapers, books, and periodicals, $4.22 billion. The IIPA report does not break out other figures for the individual industries.
The growth rate for the copyright industries between 1996 and 1997 was 11.1%, a gain over the prior year's contribution of $60.18 billion.
The average growth of copyright industries since 1993 has been between 10.4% and 13.3%-the fastest growth rate in the economy and more than double that of the economy as a whole.
U.S. copyright industries have also created jobs at a faster rate than many other leading sectors of the economy, and more workers are employed in copyright-related industries than in the aircraft, automobile, steel, pharmaceutical, or textile industries.
The copyright industries' collective contribution outdistances that of the chemical and allied products industries, which totaled $66.40 billion; the agricultural sector, $57.30 billion; electronic component and equipment segment, $54.29 billion; and aircraft and aircraft parts manufacturing, $48.64 billion.
Sources for the data come from federal agency reports, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the Motion Picture Assn. of America, and the U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook.