Businesses that rely on fair use exceptions to the U.S. copyright law came through the recession better than others, says a new study by the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

Those industries, which include news organizations, educational institutions, search engines, software developers and consumer device makers, saw $4.5 trillion in 2009 revenue, up from $3.4 trillion in 2002, the study says.

Fair use allows the reprinting of excerpts from copyrighted material (usually under 50 words) in news reporting, criticism, teaching and research. It also allows search engines to serve up images and text, TV viewers to record shows on DVRs or other media, and the lending or resale of music, books and other materials.

Ed Black, president and CEO of CCIA said, “We must recognize that what copyright leaves unregulated – the Fair Use Economy – is at least as economically significant as what it regulates.”

Industries relying on fair use – and TechJournal South is one – employe 17 million people in 2009, about one of every eight workers. That was down a bit from the 17.7 million employed in 2008. Some of the most successful Web sites rely on fair use as well as original content – The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Mashable, and many others among them.

Andrew Szamosszegi, co-author of the study said, “The fair use economy really held its own” during the recession.

“By any measure, the growth rate of fair use industries has outpaced the overall economic growth in recent years, fueled productivity gains and supported millions of jobs, the study says, making up 17 percent of the U.S. GDP.

While we live by copyright personally, we also realize that fair use – especially when it is fair and cites and links to original sources – is extremely important to the Internet economy. There is no shortage of outright copyright violation in our digital society, but there is also a movement among tech savvy creators to offer their wares via limited Creative Commons copyright, and of course, the open source software movement also spurns traditional copyright protection.

Congress should consider the importance of fair use when it looks at the Protect IP Act sponsored by Vermont Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy. Some media industry organizations such as The Recording Industry of America defends the Act, saying it is aimed at illegal foreign sites offering American products. But as this study suggests, going overboard could have unintended consequences.

For details, see the full study.