Delegates at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva are this week deliberating the relationship between copyright and ‘traditional knowledge’, a conversation of undervalued importance to the global publishing industry.
The Quebec Court of Appeal has authorized a class action by the Société québécoise de gestion collective des droits de reproduction (better known as Copibec) against Université Laval on behalf of all authors and publishers from Quebec, the rest of Canada and other countries. This decision overturns the February 2016 ruling by the Honourable Justice Beaupré of the Quebec Superior Court.
Delegates at The London Book Fair will in 2017 hear two eminent copyright law specialists debate one of the most controversial areas of international copyright law – the doctrine of 'Fair Use'.
The IPA has added its voice to those of the Union of Quebec Writers and Writers (UNEQ), the Canadian National Association of Book Publishers (ANEL) and the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) in response to troubling comments made by the Minister for Higher Education, Hélène David, on 9 December.
The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the UN body tasked with global copyright norm-setting, met at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva for the 33rd time this month — a pivotal arena attended by a fortified IPA delegation to protect the interests of world publishing.
Indian publishers have begun mounting an appeal against last month’s puzzling judgement by the Delhi High Court that extensive photocopying and the supply of course packs prepared by Delhi University, which included copies of books published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor & Francis, did not amount to infringement of copyright or that it was justifiable under India’s copyright exemptions.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry hailed the success story that is the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) today as he opened the UN agency’s weeklong General Assemblies, the annual talks by WIPO’s decision-making bodies.
On 14 September the European Commission laid out its proposal to modernize copyright rules in the EU, with the aim of enabling ‘European culture to flourish and circulate’. The IPA’s Brussels-based sister body, the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), was quick to respond, observing that while the document makes an earnest attempt to address some important issues, it does not hold all the answers.