Authors Maureen Duffy (UK) and Dr Federico Polak at WIPO Global Digital Content Market conference April 2016 (Argentina) represented authors at a conference hosted by WIPO in Geneva from April 20th – 22nd to discuss the most urgent issues facing the creative industries in the digital age.
Maureen Duffy reports: I attended the Digital Content Market Conference organised by WIPO in Geneva, partly to support our author representative, Dr Federico Polak who had come all the way from Buenos Aires to put the authors’ case on the publishing panel, and partly to intervene if the opportunity arose to underline how authors’ incomes are declining. Dr Polak made a strong plea for Public Lending Right, and I was able to point out that we need an income from secondary digital rights to replace declining returns from photo-copying, and to fight piracy.
Several interviewees stressed on camera the loss to creators and the music panel in particular came out very strongly on behalf of composers and performers. The concept of a network of linked digital ‘hubs’ to deal globally with permissions and fees for the use of our work was discussed at some length and this is clearly something authors will need to be involved in if we are not to lose all control and return for our work.
Read more about the conference on WIPO’s website.