EU commissioners met in Brussels on December 5th to discuss possible changes to EU copyright law. IFLA is pleased to note that they agreed to revisit the existing European Union copyright rules and that Commissioners Barnier, Kroes and Vassiliou will now undertake a comprehensive period of stakeholder dialogue during 2013 in order to make a final assessment of any changes needed to European legislation in 2014. IFLA looks forward to engaging in the process.
As the latest rounds of the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement continue in Auckland, New Zealand, IFLA has joined with the Internet Society (ISOC) and other organisations to express concern regarding the transparency and inclusiveness of the negotiating process.
During the plenary discussion on the afternoon of Thursday 25th November at the 25th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) in Geneva, the Chair of IFLA's Copyright and other Legal Matters (CLM) Committee made the following intervention on behalf of IFLA, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) and the Canadian Library Association (CLA):
Today IFLA, together with Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), the International Council on Archives (ICA) and the German Library Associations gave a statement on a Treaty for the Visually Impaired.