New IAF working groups

Luke AlcottCopyright law, EU, IAF, News

IAF is launching two new working groups on issues relevant to IAF members. These groups will address the EU Copyright Directive and the Used Books market and the relationship authors have with them.

EU Copyright Directive

With years of development and campaigning, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market contains a variety of measures of interest to authors. By some measures this Directive has seen greater lobbying efforts from stakeholders than any other authors’ issue in recent history. It is expected that over the implementation period for the Copyright Directive we will see a repeat of the ferocious campaigns seen at the EU level at national levels and for this reason it is important that authors’ organisations are well prepared and co-ordinated.

The primary focus of the group should be the impact of the Digital Single Market on authors, although we may touch on wider issues for the creative industries. The group will focus on information sharing and co-ordinating support for IAF members lobbying on author-relevant measures of the Copyright Directive. We are conscious that this will have a direct impact for authors in the EU but also an indirect impact beyond it and will consider how to structure the working group with that in mind.

Used Books

The contribution of creators and copyright should be respected and changes in culture should be an opportunity, not a disadvantage, for authors. However, new models of business (particularly online) have created opportunities for used books to be marketed on a large scale and without any remuneration or transparency of sales for the creator. IAF previously gathered information from members and other organisations about the status of used book markets around the world to understand what elements of these markets need to be challenged and changed to honor the contribution authors make. We believe a working group of our members would be the best way to take this further.

Any IAF member that would be interested in contributing to one or both of these groups or have any questions please contact Luke Alcott.