On 3 June the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) tabled its report following the statutory review of the 2012 Copyright Act. The report follows the Heritage Committee's Shifting Paradigms report, which was welcomed by IPA and Canadian publishers’ associations in May.
On 19 June 2019 the third list of books for the UN SDG Book Club were announced. The list of titles in all six official UN languages, aimed at children aged 6-12, focuses on the third sustainable development goal – good health and well-being.
The IPA’s Educational Publishers Forum held a meeting in Szeged, Hungary, on 28 June, and took the opportunity to tackle concerns about Freedom to Publish in education.
Alongside the Award ceremony for the 2019 IPA Prix Voltaire, the 2019 Seoul International Book Fair also hosted a two-part seminar on Freedom to Publish featuring IPA President, Hugo Setzer, the Chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee, Kristenn Einarsson, and Committee member Myung-hwan Kim.
IPA D&I envoy, Michiel Kolman interviews Elsevier’s Simon Holt and Springer Nature’s Kirsty Bone about their experiences of having a disability and working in the publishing industry. This is a long but fascinating read.
October and the first days of November were again very busy, with visits to four different countries and three book fairs in the course of three weeks.
SCCR 39 concluded this evening with an agreement found on how to keep the Exceptions and Limitations discussion moving forward and the other agenda items wrapped up and a possible new issue raised in the chamber.
The second day of discussions on the broadcasting treaty were mainly conducted behind closed doors with the plenary chamber finally filling at 17:40 for a presentation of conclusions.
The first day closed with Dr Kenneth Crews waiting to be grilled by delegates and observers. He was given the opportunity this morning, but the highlights today were the side events and the ripples from some late-night messages to delegates.
The second and final day of the IPA Regional Seminar in the Middle East was opened by Sharjah publisher Bodour Al Qasimi (Kalimat Group), who is (among other things) also the IPA Vice-President.