Introduction

IPA organises every two years alternately an international Publishers Congress or an international Copyright Symposium, in cooperation with one of its member associations.

IPA Publishers Congresses aim to offer a platform for full and open discussion among publishers from all over the world on basic industry problems and challenges. The last IPA Publishers Congress was held in Seoul, Korea on 12-15 May 2008. It attracted nearly 700 participants from 45 countries. The Congress ended with the presentation of the Resolutions, the formal concluding document of the event. See the concluding speech by 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. The next IPA Publishers Congress will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, on 12-14 June 2012. See Press Release of 15 May 2008. The following Congress, the 30th, will be in held in Bangkok World Book Capital in 2014. 

The first Copyright Symposium was held in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1986 to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Berne Copyright Convention. The second Symposium was held in Paris in 1990, the third in Turin in 1994, the fourth in Tokyo in 1998, the fifth in Accra in 2002, and the 6th in Montréal in 2006. The 7th IPA Copyright Symposium took place in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 28 February - 1 March 2010, attracting nearly 350 publishers, rightsholders and user representatives, libraries and policy makers from 34 countries.