Comment on the ‘A Counterfactual Impact Analysis of Fair Use Policy on Copyright Related Industries in Singapore : A Critical Review’

George S. Ford’s criticism of the study ‘A Counterfactual Impact Analysis of Fair Use Policy on Copyright Related Industries in Singapore’ is questionable. His critique on multiple treatment and data aggregation is in light of the methods used not fully justified. His critique of the forecast error is also unjustified. His criticism regarding the parallelism assumption hinged on a personal impression of his. The study by Ghafele and Gibert has the merit of having generated findings from fully reproducible analyses and having been extremely cautious on the types of conclusions that can be drawn from it. Clearly, the findings generated from his own or other independent analyses cannot be taken as proof that this study is ‘flawed’ as Ford claims. The intentions of the authors were genuine and the research was undertaken with integrity. Ford himself does not undertake any novel research, neither when discussing the various points he criticizes, nor when looking at the role of Fair Use in Singapore. With data extending over a much longer time period available by now such undertaking would certainly be more beneficial than a questionable critique of an outdated study