The 43rd Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at the World Intellectual Property came to an end last week. During the last day of the Committee’s work, the delegations of Sierra Leone, Malawi and Panama presented their co-sponsored proposal for a study on Public Lending Right for fact-finding purposes.
The African Regional Groups, along with members states such as Argentina, Uruguay, Kenya, Botswana, and Ghana showed their support for the proposed study. Authors’ organisations extended their support for the information gathering study to enable the committee to move forward.
The International Authors Forum (IAF) has strongly supported the proposal since its introduction to the SCCR agenda in 2020 by the delegation of Sierra Leone. The IAF supported the proposal for the study on PLR for its potential to inform national governments about PLR systems, their benefits to authors and culture and the ways in which these systems can be successfully implemented.
We look forward to the ongoing work of the WIPO Secretariat on this important initiative and thank the proposal sponsors Sierra Leone, Malawi and Panama for their work, along with the many other nations that supported their proposal.