By Edward Nawotka Today at the Buenos Aires Book Fair, the IPA Freedom to Publish Committee and the Board of the IPA have named Bui Chat, a poet and leader of Giay Vun Publishing House (Giay Vun translates as “scrap” or “waste” paper), as winner of the 2011 Freedom to Publish Award. Bui Chat is the pen name of Bui Quang …
IPA and Egyptian Publishers Assoc. Call for Authorities to Respect Freedom to Publish
By Edward Nawotka The Board of the International Publishers Association (IPA) met in Paris yesterday and together with the 423-member strong Egyptian Publishers Association (EPA), issued a joint declaration calling on Egyptian authorities “to respect freedom to publish, to investigate the murder of journalist and publisher Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud, and to allow the establishment of an independent Cairo book fair, …
Do Books Need a Warning Label to Ward Off Pirates?
By Edward Nawotka In our lead story today about the IPA Copyright Symposium held in Abu Dhabi this past Sunday and Monday, Marybeth Peters, register of copyrights, Library of Congress in the United States said that public perception of copyright is eroding and that publishers need to “engage” readers so that “copyright is seen as a good thing” and “not …
Strengthening Copyright Protections in the Middle East
By Edward Nawotka ABU DHABI: “Copyright is the legal principle that expresses society’s respect for authors and publishers, and protects the commercial interest in their creation,” said, Herman P. Spruijt, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), at the IPA Copyright Symposium which took place this past Sunday and Monday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. “It is at the …
IPA Freedom to Publish Chair on China
On Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Norwegian publisher Bjorn Smith-Simonsen, in his capacity as chair of the International Publishers Association’s Freedom to Publish Committee, suggested that one of the first potential steps toward resolving the issue of censorship in China was to encourage the Publishers Association of China [PAC] to join the IPA: “They [PAC] could eventually become a …