OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

CONCLUSION - DESIGNING LOCAL PUBLIC POLICIES
But some cultural product firms do not have the physical or human wherewithal
to set up such systems, and this is where government could come in, if only to
organise a local facility that they could all use.
In some countries, museums have agreed to reserve space for local craft exhibits.
There is an essential difference here between the normal “museum shop”, which
sells products made for the most part outside the territory and therefore contributes
little in the way of local value added, and these local product boutiques.
• Many point to Internet sales as the miracle solution. Here we must distinguish
two different selling situations, one where the order is placed via the Internet,
and the other where the good is sold and delivered via the Internet. The issues
involved here go well beyond the local level, though it is true that governments
could help establish local sites.
Avoiding another “tragedy of the commons”
While this issue is much broader than the local development context, property
rights pose a constant problem for promoting a territory’s cultural assets. Generally
speaking, recognition of intellectual property rights is supposed to provide an
incentive to creativity. Only in this way can creators hope to reap benefits from their
activities and protect themselves from counterfeiting. Although this is a very controversial
issue for those who insist that creativity does not respond to monetary incentives, it
must be admitted that innovators will not be able to cover their costs unless they
can make a profit over some period of time at least.
Whatever approach to intellectual property rights is adopted, it must afford
effective protection to creators. When it comes to local development this is not always
the case.
• Copyright applies only to unique creations, and provides a protection mechanism
that must be initiated by the creators themselves, which is not always easy.
• Moreover, the Internet is multiplying the challenges to this form of property to
the point where some are rethinking it completely.
• Patents could be a more useful form of protection here, since they can be
enforced through government-organised mechanisms. But cultural works are
rarely patented, because the award of a patent requires strict rules of originality
and process.
• We are left, then, with the idea of the trademark, which is generally the weakest
of all forms of intellectual property.
CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005 161