The User Rights Database: Measuring the Impact of Copyright Balance

"Our first results are based on tests of copyright limitation openness. We refer to “open” limitations as those that are open to the use of any kind of work, by any kind of user and for any purpose, as long as the use does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.  Although all countries are trending toward more open user rights, there is a clear gap between wealthy and developing countries. Developing countries in our sample are now at the level of openness that existed in the wealthy countries 30 years ago. Few countries, and almost no developing countries, have sufficient user rights most needed to support the digital economy, including for transformative use or text- and datamining."