In her welcoming speech, President Bodour Al Qasimi highlighted the importance of copyright as one of IPA’s main mission pillars. The Committee’s Chair Jessica Sänger outlined the Committee’s strategic priorities for 2021. IPA will continue to monitor copyright developments around the world and file submissions to public consultations, which are ongoing in Namibia, Singapore, Thailand and Korea, and are expected in Canada and South Africa. The Chair reiterated IPA’s availability to assist members in their advocacy for strong copyright protection.

Secretary General José Borghino informed the Committee about IPA’s interventions at UNESCO and WIPO. He underlined IPA’s continued collaborations with WIPO on the Accessible Books Consortium, the Global Report on Publishing Statistics, and the Publishers’ Circle. 

As usual, the General Member Roundtable generated a lively debate, with members from Singapore, United Kingdom, Thailand, France and Japan presenting the latest developments in their jurisdictions.

As copyright has been high on the policy agenda around the world, some members kindly recorded video messages to share news about China, India, the European Union, Korea, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, and United States of America. We thank them and all other contributors.

The success of the meeting means that we may call another virtual meeting in the future. Please stay tuned for more details.