CCC returns to the International Publishers Congress with Michael Healy participating in the Collective Rights Management Panel. The 2018 gathering of national, regional and specialty publishers takes place in New Delhi from 10-14 February.
Interview with IPA President Michiel Kolman
As much as India has transformed over the last 25 years, so has publishing. National barriers to the flow of information have largely fallen while the ubiquity of mobile devices places a virtual global library in nearly every human hand. Yet the core concerns of IPA endure – freedom to publish and respect for copyright. In an age of fake news, censorship and piracy, says IPA President Michiel Kolman, publishers can be stewards of truth and quality.
“We live in a world of alternative facts, so trust in reliable, high-quality information is now even more important than ever before,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally in a recent episode of the Beyond the Book podcast. “And it’s the publishers around the world that have risen to this challenge and are publishing what I would call trustworthy information, as they have been doing for ages. That’s true for science publishers, for trade publishers, or educational publishers.
CCC on Collective Rights Management
13 February 2018, 4:00 to 5:30 PM
Chair: Ana María Cabanellas, Grupo Claridad; IPA past President, Argentina
Panelists:
- Caroline Morgan, Chief Executive & Secretary General, International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations, Belgium
- Sudhir Malhotra, Chairman, Indian Reprographic Rights Organization, India
- Michael Healy, Executive Director of International Relations, Copyright Clearance Center, United States
- Kevin Fitzgerald, Senior Advisor Copyright and Creative Industries, WIPO, Switzerland
International Publishers Repeat Call for Gui Minhai’s Release
This year’s Prix Voltaire award for honour a person or organization adjudged to have made a significant contribution to the defence and promotion of freedom to publish in the world goes to scholar and publisher Gui Minhai. Gui has been incarcerated in his native China since 2015 on the charge of distributing banned books. The International Publishers Association explained their choice in this statement:
“At the 2018 IPA Prix Voltaire award ceremony in New Delhi, the International Publishers Association (IPA) renewed its calls for the release of Prix Voltaire recipient, Gui Minhai. Mr Gui’s daughter, Angela, welcomed the Award on his behalf on a night when the IPA also handed out two posthumous Special Awards.
IPA President, Michiel Kolman reminded the gathered audience why freedom of publish was so important to IPA: ‘Freedom of expression is a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet this right is under continuous, sustained, daily attack, with writers and publishers vilified, jailed, tortured and killed merely for doing their jobs.’
Receiving the award, Angela Gui said: ‘I think that my father’s version of optimism is perhaps precisely the kind that Voltaire describes. It’s an optimism that in the face of unimaginable cruelty still believes in change. And it’s an optimism that isn’t crushed by lies, force and humiliation.’”
Can’t make it to New Delhi? Stay up to date and join in the conversation on Twitter, using the hashtag #IPACongress2018.