IPA’s delegation for the week was complete on Thursday with Anne Bergman-Tahon (FEP, EU), Gvantsa Jobava (GE), Salome Maghlakelidze (GE), Catriona McCleod Stevenson (UK), Ahmed Rashad (EG), Glenn Rollans (CA), Jessica Sänger (DE), and Peter Schoppert (SG), plus the Secretariat José Borghino, James Taylor and Olivier Borie.
In bringing proceedings back to the plenary chamber, Vanessa Cohen presented her vision for future work which she promised to conduct with a ‘constructive spirit based on good faith and transparency’. She acknowledged the SCCR’s ‘polarized opinions and the obvious difficulty in bringing those positions closer together.’
Cohen committed to presenting a roadmap at SCCR 47 (1-5 December 2025) based on the existing adopted documents (draft proposal by the African group for the implementation of the work Program on Exceptions and Limitations that was Adopted at the 43rd Session of the WIPO SCCR (SCCR/43/8 REV.) and the Updated Version of the Document “Objectives and Principles for Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives” ([previous version was] SCCR/26/8) (document SCCR/44/5)).
With Limitations and Exceptions closed, discussions moved on to the ‘Other Matters’ agenda item which was traditionally reserved for Friday.
That opened with the Public Lending Right discussion: Dr Sabine Richly presenting the updated Scoping Study on Public Lending Right. Dr Richly was congratulated by Member States for taking their comments into account to produce an informative and comprehensive document. PLR International and EWC added their support for Dr Richly’s work and the study, and IPA would have joined them had time allowed. Our speech was relayed to the WIPO Secretariat for their information. You can read the statement below.
There was still time before lunch for Member States to discuss Cote d’Ivoire’s Proposal for a Study on the Rights of Audiovisual Authors and their Remuneration for the Exploitation of their Works. That issue had been the subject of Wednesday evening’s side event which brought together screenwriters, directors and academics (from Spain, France, Nigeria and Argentina). You can watch that session here. Back in the plenary, the revised proposal was only posted on the SCCR website on the Tuesday of this SCCR week which left some Member States insufficient time to review the proposal. Others noted the addition of audiovisual performers into the scope,which split opinions on the possible study. With time running out, observers were unable to take the floor and it seems that this proposal will roll over to the next SCCR. And almost unbelievably, right at the buzzer, there was still time to hear an update on progress on the Study on the Rights of Stage Directors of Theatrical Productions.
IPA’s side event Who is writing? Rights and responsibilities in an AI-powered world saw IPA President Gvantsa Jobava, and Co-Chair of IPA’s Copyright Committee Catriona Macleod Stevenson, introduce Peter Schoppert, the Director of NUS Press in Singapore.
Schoppert delivered a tour-de-force lecture demonstrating the intrinsic link between literature and technological progress by tracing the idea of an LLM all the way back in 1726, in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. He laid bare the technological reality behind GenAI and its metaphorical interpretation before showing the inherent expression at the core of GenAI in its training data, and the efforts required to prevent GenAI revealing that expression from its training data. Shifting from Swift to Roland Barthes, Schoppert considered the author’s essay The Death of the Author and how it uncannily predicted so much of today’s GenAI ecosystem. Closing, he underlined that: ‘The super power of publishing is that we take responsibility for what we publish. This is not the behaviour we are seeing from the AI companies.’ You can watch the session here (French, Spanish).
AI continued to be the order of the day with the Information Session on Copyright and Generative Artificial Intelligence (programme, speakers). The sessions featured a series of interesting presentations of developments, both in terms of legislation and jurisprudence, in Member States (like Brazil, the USA, Japan, the EU, Korea, Nigeria, Georgia, and Azerbaijan) as well as the work of platforms like Google, Shutterstock, Pleias and Deezer and finally the impact on creators through the Songwriters Association of Canada. All of the AI copyright issues were presented: inputs/outputs, licensing (collective or otherwise), training data, transparency, remuneration, liability.
WIPO DDG Forbin closed the proceedings picking out the risk of fragmentation as her key takeaway. She saw two particular types of fragmentation. The first from the uneven speeds of adoption of Generative AI with its necessary impact on the digital divide and cultural diversity. The second in the sense of different pieces of legislation being adopted by different countries and creating different legal frameworks. Forbin teased a forthcoming WIPO Conversation on IP and AI where a new infrastructure initiative would be announced and closed by putting the ball back in SCCR and Member States’ court in terms of what the next steps would be, notably pulling out the call from the Songwriters Association of Canada to ensure the creators are guaranteed the ability to exercise their rights as authors and their copyright.
A fitting end to a very full day four.
IPA Statement on the Scoping Study on Public Lending Right
The International Publishers Association would like to again thank the author, Doctor Sabine Richly, for her work preparing this ‘Scoping Study on Public Lending Right’.
The IPA supports the statements of PLR International and IFRRO on this matter. IPA does not believe a Treaty targetted approach is necessary. However, this scoping study provides a solid foundation for developing WIPO support for functioning systems, like the Public Lending Right, that do not undermine library budgets while effectively compensating authors, publishers and other rightsholders for the lending of copyrighted works by libraries.
Thank you