The International Authors Forum (IAF) attended the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR36) in Geneva during the week commencing 28 May 2018.
The SCCR36 agenda continued the work of previous sessions on the Broadcasting Treaty; Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries & Archives; Limitations and Exceptions for Educational and Research Institutions and for Persons with Other Disabilities, and a range of proposals for further work, most importantly on the Artist’s Resale Right (ARR).
Much work on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries & Archives, Limitations and Exceptions for Educational and Research Institutions and for Persons with Other Disabilities focused on establishing the Action Plans on Limitations and Exceptions through SCCR39.
IAF gave strong support for the potential permanent inclusion of ARR on the agenda of the SCCR at WIPO, and supported the establishment of a task force on this issue. The SCCR did not agree to add ARR to the agenda following reluctance from delegations from USA and Japan; however the ARR task force was approved. IAF will monitor and engage with the development of the ARR task force going forward.
At a side event on education, a variety of speakers advocated the extension of educational exceptions. This shows a continuing trend of NGOs becoming established at WIPO as observers with the intent to weaken copyright. The panel featured speakers who approved of the situation in Canada which has been so damaging to authors, and others argued against the case of authors and their publishers at New Delhi University and Georgia State University. In spite of this, IAF had the opportunity to speak to a range of member state delegates to make the case that educational licensing regularly forms an important part of the income of authors whose work is used in education. To ensure authors can continue to create the work that people will access, we must ensure the author is rewarded fairly and with respect to their profession. If authors are not rewarded in the value chain of creation, the diversity, quality and quantity of works created will suffer.
You can see IAF’s statement to SCCR36 here.
The International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations challenged claims about education exceptions – see here.
Read the International Publishers Association’s response on the issue of education exceptions here.
IAF intervention on Artist’s Resale Right at SCCR36 can be found here.