WIPO Guidelines on Assessing the Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of Copyright (ESCIA)
Piloting in Finland
The Economic, Social and Cultural Impact Assessment (or ESCIA) Guidelines, developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), aim at assessing the impacts of copyright-related regulatory and policy decisions. The ESCIA methodology is outlined in the publication Draft Guidelines on Assessing the Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of Copyright on the Creative Economy, available online on the website of WIPO.
Finland was the first country to test the application of the ESCIA methodology, following a proposal by the Secretariat of WIPO. The pilot project was conducted in cooperation between Cupore and the Finnish Copyright Society.
The pilot study was based on a set of alternative policy scenarios with the purpose of clarifying questions concerning the use of copyright-protected material in non-commercial scientific research. The goal of the pilot study was to evaluate the impacts of the alternative policy scenarios from the perspective of researchers and research institutes, as well as from the perspective of right holders.

