WIPO Diary (SCCR 37) Day 5: The End of the Affair

IPA’s President-elect, Hugo Setzer, virtually opened the last day of SCCR 37 in a video prepared by the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC). Hugo spoke eloquently (in Spanish, with English subtitles) about accessibility issues as they affect his native Mexico as well as the global context.

IPA Secretary General, José Borghino, took advantage of Hugo’s star turn on the silver screen to underline the IPA’s commitment to the helping provide more accessible books for people with visual disabilities through the ABC, where IPA’s current President, Michiel Kolman, is a board member and our Vice President-elect, Bodour Al Qasimi, recently signed an agreement with WIPO for accessibility training in the United Arab Emirates.

With the ABC presentation closed, the SCCR Chair moved discussions onto the proposal for analysis of copyright as it relates to the digital environment where the modalities of a study were approved with a few modifications. While this issue was raised in relation to the music industry and the way revenues reach different parts of the value chain, the modalities document does state that this process ‘could be followed later by complementary studies on audiovisual and literary works’. This is something we will need to keep a wary eye on.

And with that finished, all that remained to be discussed was the Chair’s summary of the week’s proceedings. The Chair noted the shockingly early hour at which the main agenda items had been completed but encouraged Member States to continue discussions offline on the Broadcasting Treaty ahead of the next SCCR meeting (SCCR 38, 1-5 April 2019). He also pleaded with delegations and observers to encourage local stakeholders to contribute to the studies and the regional conferences. You can read the draft summary here. 

It was a busy week for IPA's delegation, some of whom also took the opportunity to talk to IP-Watch. You can read the thoughts of Bodour Al Qasimi (United arab Emirates, Jessica Sänger (Germany) and Anges Félix N'dakpri (Ivory Coast) here.

As a surprisingly short SCCR came to an end, people trickled out of WIPO and into the frigid and gloomy Geneva air.