Skip Navigation

The State of Copyright in the Digital Age – What Is a Publisher to Do?

Image of Ned May

Author: Ned May, Vice President & Lead Analyst

This report is targeted at publishers and information providers, supplying essential actions for publishers grappling with copyright and how they can better monetize their content. In this era of easy and immediate communication, the perceptions, laws, and practices around copyright and protection of intellectual property are frequently challenged. Outsell conservatively estimates the traffic in information sharing among knowledge workers in the US to be 370 billion events per year – a nearly six-fold increase over our 2005 estimate. This report examines knowledge workers’ behaviors and perceptions around information-sharing and copyright now as compared with 2005. It reviews three keys around copyright - education, enablement, and enforcement - and considers the tools available to publishers for ensuring copyright compliance. The report contains:

- Outsell data on content-sharing behaviors and perceptions within the enterprise based on our surveys in 2009 and 2005;
- Analysis of compliance management and the variance between policy and practice;
- A look at the tools available to enterprises for stewarding copyright compliance and to rights holders for protecting their intellectual property;
- Essential actions for publishers to better monetize their content via copyright.


We provide a link to download a PDF at the end of the purchase process.

Pub Date: February 19, 2010
Type: Market Report
Segments: B2B E & T HR CF ITTRRS LTR MRRS NEWS STM SAS T & C
Keywords: Copyright, Web 2.0, Web Services, Professional Publishing
Pages: 28
Format: PDF Application_pdf


See a sample page

Download PDF table of contents

Table of Contents

  • Why This Topic?
  • Methodology
  • Users and Copyright - Current Perceptions
  • Sharing Behaviors
    1. Sharing Through New Media
  • Perceptions about Information Use and Sharing
    1. Inside or Outside – It’s All Good
  • Compliance Management
    1. The Variance between Policy and Practice
  • The Three Keys to Monetizing Copyright: Education, Enablement, and Enforcement
    1. Education
    2. Enablement
    3. Enforcement
  • Essential Actions
  • Related Research

    • Tables & Figures

  • Figure 1. Copyright Consideration Then and Now
  • Figure 2. Frequency of Information Sharing
  • Figure 3. Number of Times per Week Information is Forwarded, by Organization Size – Then and Now
  • Figure 4. Number of People Information Forwarded To, by Organization Size – Then and Now
  • Table 1. Information Sharing Preferences, by Method
  • Table 2. Information Sharing Preferences by Age Group
  • Figure 5. Sharing Free Information – Then and Now
  • Figure 6. Sharing Purchased Information – Then and Now
  • Figure 7. Mission-Critical Use – Then and Now
  • Figure 8. Sharing Portal Information Inside the Organization – Then and Now
  • Figure 9. Sharing Portal Information Outside the Organization –Then and Now
  • Figure 10. Organizational Protection – Then and Now
  • Figure 11. Obtaining Permission – Then and Now
  • Figure 12. Commercial Purposes – Then and Now
  • Figure 13. Organizational Copyright Policies
  • Figure 14. Frequency of Communicating Copyright Policy
  • Figure 15. Format for Communicating Copyright Policy
  • Figure 16. Key Go-To for Copyright or Licensing Questions