Introduction

Creative and cultural industries are not important simply because of their size. They are also a driver of development and stimulate new creative ideas and technologies. They therefore have knock-on effects on the entire economy. Governments like cultural industries because they believe that they create wealth and generate income by exploiting national cultural assets, and by producing knowledge-based goods and services of all kinds. ‘Creative industries’ focuses on the organization of work processes required to make products, while ‘cultural industries’ highlights the end product itself in its cultural environment. Industries that make use of copyright and related rights protection are often referred to as the copyright-based or the creative industries. They generate direct and indirect contributions to economic performance and development and are considered of growing importance for the achievement of important national economic and social objectives. World Intellectual Property Organisation distinguishes between different kinds of copyright industries. Two of them are ‘core’ and ‘partial’ copyright industries.