Home 5 Articles and Reports 5 Intellectual Property and the Challenge of the Digital World

Intellectual Property and the Challenge of the Digital World

by | Feb 13, 2018 | Articles and Reports, News

Global business models need a redefinition of the line between private and public; the book industry needs to create a functional, global, digital marketplace; and there is a paralysis in law-making internationally that is holding back progress and allowing the tech companies to take the lead. These were among broad observations made by Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIP) in Switzerland at a session on ‘Shaping the Future of IP in Publishing’ held at the International Publishers Congress in Delhi.

“The whole business model of international cooperation has been disrupted,” he said. “But we do need international cooperation in all areas. There needs to be redefinition of the line between private and public. At the moment, the private sector has more money and information, but we need to pay attention to the opportunities that exist between private and public.”

He talked about systems in publishing having been drawn up in an age that has now gone. “We have the architecture of an analogue system embracing a global, digital world. The tech companies have started in this new world straightaway. Now, there is scepticism among the public about government involvement in publishing. But we have some platforms in other IP areas where governments are involved. Pharmaceutical companies and government bodies share IP with regard to diseases – but here it is for poor countries where is no market incentive.”

He talked about the need for a functional, global, digital marketplace and told Nasher that such a marketplace does exist, “only it’s run by pirates”. He takes encouragement from the signatories to the Marrakech Treaty, the agreement by which publishers provide content and titles for free to be adapted for use by the blind or visual impaired via the Accessible Books Consortium. Thirty-seven countries have now signed up to this, the most recent being Russia in early February.

Maria Pallante, CEO of the Association of American Publishers, also spoke, hitting out at those in the ‘knowledge should be free’ camp. “Those who advocate for weak copyright laws or who seek to circumvent or appropriate copyrighted works to their own end often do so by citing to the public interest. They frame the public interest as though it is separate from the rights of copyright owners or worse yet, that publishers and other copyright owners are an obstacle to progress. This is false. Copyright law and copyright owners are central to the public interest.”

Her speech also included a lovely, poetic quote from the man who started it all. “Publishing today looks a lot like the vision of the original publishing innovator, Johannes Gutenberg,” she said. “He described it like this: ‘It is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams…A spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men’”.

Recent News

17Jul
Penguin Supports Winn Amid Controversy

Penguin Supports Winn Amid Controversy

Penguin said release date of On Winter Hill would be changed in order to ‘support the author’ after allegations that Raynor Winn lied in her bestselling memoir. Author Raynor Winn’s new book has been delayed because questions about her bestselling work The Salt Path have caused her and her husband “considerable distress”, her publisher has […]

17Jul
Farshore  Revives ‘Portly the Otter’

Farshore Revives ‘Portly the Otter’

HarperCollins’ children’s imprint Farshore has acquired The Adventures of Portly the Otter: Untold Tales from the Wind in the Willows by award-winning children’s author M. G. Leonard. The book of exciting spin-off stories from the much-loved classic The Wind in the Willows, written by Kenneth Grahame and illustrated by E.H. Shepard, will publish in March […]

16Jul
Firefinch to Debut in 2026 with Star Authors

Firefinch to Debut in 2026 with Star Authors

Publishing veteran Kate Parkin, who worked for Random House and was most recently MD of the adult publishing division at Bonnier Books UK, is launching a new independent publishing house, Firefinch.  It is a co-venture with her Bonnier colleague Margaret Stead who was Bonnier publisher. Among the authors who are making the jump with them […]

Related Posts

Farshore  Revives ‘Portly the Otter’

Farshore Revives ‘Portly the Otter’

HarperCollins’ children’s imprint Farshore has acquired The Adventures of Portly the Otter: Untold Tales from the Wind in the Willows by award-winning children’s author M. G. Leonard. The book of exciting spin-off stories from the much-loved classic The Wind in the...

Firefinch to Debut in 2026 with Star Authors

Firefinch to Debut in 2026 with Star Authors

Publishing veteran Kate Parkin, who worked for Random House and was most recently MD of the adult publishing division at Bonnier Books UK, is launching a new independent publishing house, Firefinch.  It is a co-venture with her Bonnier colleague Margaret Stead who was...

Al Faya: Where History Took Its First Steps on the Sands of the Desert

Al Faya: Where History Took Its First Steps on the Sands of the Desert

In a timeless moment etched into the memory of human heritage, the sun of Sharjah rose once again on the map of the world, this time through the gateway of deep history. At its recently concluded 47th session in Paris, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee officially...

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this