Borghino spoke about IPA’s work at the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva, especially our long-running battle to stave off broadened exceptions to international copyright law for educational publishers. He called on IPA’s Arabic members to lobby their governments to change their current position at WIPO which supports the broadening of exceptions and therefore threatens the livelihoods of their own publishers. Simpson described international best practice in the design of copyright laws and advocated for a balance of measures that incentivized publishers and creators, while ensuring adequate enforcement mechanisms to protected publishers’ investments. Finally, Newton gave examples of the innovative work of the Publishers Association in thwarting illegal digital pirate sites in collaboration with national and international law enforcement agencies.
While at the book fair, Borghino also met with senior leadership of IPA members, the Egyptian Publishers Association and the Arab Publishers Association, as well as speaking at a gala celebration of the career of Ibrahim El Moallem, former IPA Vice President and recipient of the 2024 IPA Champions Award. He also met with 2019 IPA Prix Voltaire laureate, Khaled Lotfy, and visited the stand of 2024’s recipient Samir Mansour.