[Event Report] 34th IPA Congress

This TechieKat was thrilled to attend the 34th International Publishers Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 3 to 6 December 2024.

As reported here, the International Publishers Association (IPA) held the event. The Mexican Publishers Association (CANIEM) hosted the bi-annual congress in collaboration with the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and in coordination with the Guadalajara International Book Fair.

The programme covered relevant aspects of the publishing sector, including copyright, industry cooperation, freedom to publish and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Here is this TechieKat’s report on the congress, mainly focused on the copyright sessions.

Opening and Keynote Speech

Karine Pansa (IPA) and Hugo Setzer (Mexican Publishers Association) welcomed the attendees. Hugo emphasized Mexico’s key role in the publishing industry in Latin America and highlighted that the essence of publishing remains despite technological advancements over time. Karine underlined the participation of women in the sector and the copyright concerns in light of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Then, it was the turn of the keynote speech, given by Enrique Krauze (author, publisher, and historian), who inter alia discussed Mexican society’s historical aspects.

Karine Pansa and Hugo Setzer

The Pillars of IPA: Copyright Driving Freedom of Expression

Karine Pansa (IPA) moderated the session. Brian Murray (HarperCollins) stressed that, while the use of generative AI in diverse tools to boost productivity has been well received, there are copyright concerns across the board regarding human creativity. Then, Brian Wafawarowa (Juta Press) touched on contractual aspects in light of the recent copyright reform in Africa, text and data mining (TDM), and the usage of content for non-commercial and educational reasons vs. commercial purposes. Last but not least, Jesus Badenes (Planeta Publishing) provided views on the impact of AI from a Latin American perspective, pointing out the importance of copyright protection to foster creativity.

Karine Pansa, Jesus Badenes, Brian Wafawarowa and Brian Murray

Reservation of Rights: Enforceability of Opt-Out Mechanism

Roy Kaufman (Copyright Clearance Center) moderated the session. Roy discussed the copyright-relevant provisions in the European AI Act, including the recent release of the draft of the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (review the second draft here, which was published some days ago). Then, Dolores Sancha (Penguin Random House) recapped views about TDM established in articles 3 and 4 of the DSM Directive and stressed the importance of balancing the protection of creators and AI usage.

Mitchell Bakos (American Chemical Society) indicated that a group was formed at the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) to inter alia identify ways to implement the opt-out mechanism established in article 4 of the DSM Directive and protect academic works from scraping for TDM activities for commercial purposes, based on the TDMRep protocol developed by the W3C community group (review here the Guidelines on using STM content for Text and Data Mining and for Training of Artificial Intelligence models/systems).

To conclude this session, Eduardo de la Parra (De la Parra & Asociados) explained the proposals to regulate AI in Mexico and Colombia. He outlined that the Mexican proposal aligns with the EU AI Act, as it also includes a similar classification of AI systems based on the risks that may be generated: "Unacceptable Risk", "High Risk", and "Low Risk" (review the Mexican proposal in Spanish here). Eduardo also highlighted the key role that CMOs will play in light of the Colombian proposal (review it here in Spanish), as it establishes the mandatory collective management to authorize, prohibit or restrict the usage of works protected by copyright to train AI models or systems.

Roy Kaufman, Dolores Sancha, Mitchell Bakos and Eduardo de la Parra  

Regulating Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright

Maria Pallante (AAP) moderated the session. Iban García del Blanco (former Member of the European Parliament) recalled his participation in the negotiations of the EU AI Act, remarking that the copyright aspects were difficult to address until consensus was reached, as the challenges involved inter alia to balance all parties’ interests.

Then, Maria Strong (U.S. Copyright Office, USCO) provided insights into USCO’s work, including the three reports addressing AI. The first report on digital replicas was recently released, whereas she outlined that the other two are in preparation and will cover copyrightability in light of litigation on AI issues and the ingestion of copyrighted content used in training models (including fair use analysis). Maria anticipated that the remaining reports would be published in the upcoming future without indicating a specific date.

Iban García del Blanco, Maria Pallante and Maria Strong  

Enforcing Copyrights Online: A Survey of Enforcement Frameworks

Lui Simpson (Association of American Publishers) moderated the session. Lui discussed some challenges faced over time (e.g., P2P file sharing and infringement via social media) and provided an overview of existing remedies against digital piracy, including N&T (notice and takedown) and NSD (notice and stay-down).

Catriona Stevenson (Publishers Association) described certain trends in the last five years, such as the move from individual websites to networks (comprising domains and subdomains) and social media groups where infringing content is shared. Catriona also highlighted the collaboration of the Authors Guild and the Publishers Association with the U.S. government on the Z-Library case (more information here and here). She underlined that Z-Library claimed to offer more than 11 million e-books for download and that pursuant to a court order, over 200 domains of Z-Library’s network were taken offline.

After her, Dalton Morato (Associação Brasileira de Defesa dos Direitos Autorais e Reprográficos, ABDR) explained the increasing trend of using social media groups for sharing pirated books in Brazil and the actions taken regarding certain infringing content available on Mercado Libre, highlighting that collaboration is key in the fight against piracy (review this TechieKat’s posts on IPRs infringement via social groups here & here, and how Mercado Libre deals with online IP infringements here).

Lui Simpson, Dalton Morato and  Catriona Stevenson  

Exceptions and Limitations: Threats to a Robust (International) Copyright Framework

Jessica Sänger (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels) moderated the session and emphasized the work done by the Copyright Committee of IPA, whilst Dante Cid (Elsevier) stressed the importance of the collaboration of Associations representing publishers.

Then, Silke Von Lewinski (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition) discussed inter alia the three-step test in the Berne Convention, whereas Quetzalli de la Concha (Penguin Random House) touched on the rationale of exceptions and limitations as a balanced mechanism. She also discussed some provisions established in the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.

Jessica Sänger,Silke Von Lewinski, Quetzalli de la Concha and Dante Cid    

Copyright Keynote

The congress closed with the keynote delivered by Sylvie Forbin (World Intellectual Property Organization). Sylvie provided insights into the ongoing debate about AI and using protected content by copyright. She also discussed the challenges of digital transformation, highlighting its impact on creative industries such as the publishing industry and stressed that copyright remains core in safeguarding creators and diverse business models. Sylvie also addressed the risks and vulnerabilities when navigating a new technological area, the strategies copyright holders apply to protect their rights, and the key role licensing will play in light of generative AI.

Sylvie Forbin

The congress also included fantastic social activities (see a glimpse below), such as a gala dinner in which the winners of the WIPO ABC Excellence Award, IPA Innovation in Publishing Award, IPA Champion Award, and 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire were announced (more on the awards here and here).

Gala dinner at the Zapopan Municipal Palace  

Katfriends and TechieKat, Rachel Martin, Michiel Kolman and Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo

All images by Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo were taken during the event (except the tenth one by Geidy Lung).