At Frankfurter Buchmesse: Key IPA Events Are Open to Trade Visitors

The International Publishers Association this year opens several events to Frankfurt’s trade visitors, addressing copyright, education, and freedom to publish.

At the recent IPA Middle East seminar news conference in Amman, Jordan, from left, are Khaled Bilbeisi, representative of Jordan to the International Publishers Association; Fathi Al Biss, president of the Union of Jordanian Publishers; Hugo Setzer, IPA president; and the Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, IPA vice-president. Image: IPA, Nabs Ahmedi

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Emphases on the Freedom to Publish and Copyright

It’s customary for the International Publishers Association (IPA) to capitalize on the high percentage of member-organization players at Frankfurter Buchmesse each year. The IPA typically has a strong roster of events for its members at Frankfurt.

And while this year is no exception for members—there are special working sessions of the organization’s copyright, membership, executive, and Freedom To Publish committees, as well as a plenary general assembly during the course of the week—there also are an impressive number of chances for trade visitors to engage with events on the roster.

Freedom To Publish

Kristenn Einarsson, chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish committee and of the Norwegian Publishers Association, hosting the Lillehammer congress in 2020. Image: IPA, Nabs Ahmedi

On Frankfurt Wednesday, for example, October 16, there’s an open freedom to publish meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. in room “Kontrast,” Hall 3 East.

And on Thursday at 1 p.m., the Freedom To Publish committee will welcome Mahmoud Lutfi , brother of the jailed Egyptian publisher Khaled Lutfi, who is this year’s IPA Prix Voltaire recipient. That session is at the Frankfurt Guest of Honor Norway pavilion, led by IPA freedom to publish chair Kristenn Einarsson (chair of the Norwegian Publishers Association), who is to be joined by Turkey’s Burhan Sönmez and Ensaf Haidar, wife of Raif Badawi, jailed in Saudi Arabia.

That program on the “Lives of the Laureates” of the IPA Prix Voltaire is to be followed by a vigil for the organization’s 2018 honoree, Gui Minhai, still detained in China.

IPA 33rd Congress, Lillehammer

At Lillehammer’s Norsk Litteraturfestival. Image: NL

Also at the book fair this week, there’s a brief presentation at 11:40 (to noon) o the 33rd IPA International Publishers Congress, which is set for May of next year at Lillehammer during that city’s literary festival.

This program previewing some aspects of the congress—which is to have a very promising element of newly developed data and research—will again be at the Guest of Honor Norway pavilion and led by Einarsson, whose team will be hosting the event next spring.

Global Copyright Policy and Enforcement Forum

As those who follow our coverage of the IPA know, copyright is—like the freedom to publish—one of the great pillars of focus for the world body, and on Thursday afternoon from 3:30 to 5 p.m., the IPA will be joined by the Association of American Publishers and the UK’s Publishers Association in presenting a “‘Global Copyright Policy and Enforcement Forum” at Messe Frankfurt’s Festhalle Rotunde.

the presentation is to feature Lui Simpson, Ted Shapiro and Ursula Feindor-Schmidt in discussions touching on online accountability as well as important law and policy developments for the publishing industry.

Among topics to be taken up:

Administrative and judiciary online enforcement procedures available in various parts of the world
Challenges and opportunities arising from article 17 of the European Union’s Digital Single Market copyright directive
The US Federal Trade Commission’s consultation on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century”
The recent EU advocate-general opinion in the Tom Kabinet case on secondary markets of “used” ebooks

Educational Publishers Forum

This program is to have presentations from Pearson, the Association of American Publishers, China Education Publishing and Media Group and more.

It’s set in room Spektrum 1 at the Congress Center, C2.

For more on the IPA’s activities at Frankfurter Buchmesse, you’ll find a PDF edition of its trade show schedule here.

Marcia Lynx Qualey, founder of ArabLit, in a session on social media moderated by Publishing Perspectives at the IPA Middle East seminar in Amman. Image: IPA, Nabs Ahmedi

More from Publishing Perspectives on the International Publishers Association is here. More coverage of copyright issues is here. And more on the freedom to publish is here, while more on the Norwegian market and its guest of honor program at Frankfurt is here.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson is a non-resident fellow of Trends Research & Advisory, and he has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.