As the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held the 43th session of its Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) hybrid in March 2023, EWC President Nina George submitted on behalf of the European Writers’ Council the following statement on the pending “Proposal for a Study Focused on Public Lending Right in the Agenda and Future Work of the SCCR of the WIPO.

Brussels / Geneva, 16 March 2023

The EWC thanks WIPO for the opportunity to submit a statement related to the pending proposal prepared by the Republics of Sierra Leone, Panama, and Malawi and would like to respond to the Chair’s invitation to make a comment and give input on possible next steps. We also refer to our submission to the proposal, contributed at the SCCR/41 and /42 meetings, available here (Statement 57) and here (page 26).

The European Writers’ Council continues to fully support this proposal for a WIPO planned PLR study. The EWC represents 160,000 writers in the book and text sector from 46 writers’ and translators’ organisations in 31 EU, EEA and non-EU countries, published worldwide, and also lend out globally in Libraries. The EWC is a member of the PLR International Steering Committee, and we support the given statement by PLR International.

PLR implements the principle that ‘every use must be remunerated’ which is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by which writers and translators are entitled to receive remuneration from every use of their work.

Moreover, we are convinced that PLR sustainably supports the mission of libraries as a third place, a physical space of encounter and social interaction, and access to knowledge and literature. A society that is committed to future generations of citizens, but also to intellectual sources, must today establish sustainably conceived and financed concepts that enable the authors of the works, as well as the readers of the works, both to create culture and to have access to it under fair and sustainable conditions. Remunerated PLR is the way forward.

The EWC supports the core aims of the proposal, “… a WIPO-sponsored study to provide a more detailed information on the different ways in which PLR can be introduced, on limitations and solutions, and how we can access the support and capacity building (…) This study will answer the question of how countries are to identify which PLR approach is most appropriate to their needs?” The EWC endorses especially the points I-VII in the proposal SCCR/40/3/Rev.2.

We encourage WIPO and its member states to proceed positively, and to initiate a WIPO conducted study to present a solid and wide-ranging report as a “handout” to support those nations that want to secure the state’s educational mandate with an equitable method in the interest of authors, society, innovation, and preservation of future knowledge.

• The study should not lead to a legal instrument of any form.
• It should focus on PLR for printed works and focus on public libraries.

As next steps, we propose for your reflection and consideration:

• Launching in-depth consultations with participation of all sector representatives in the book sector (authors, translators, visual artists, publishers, trade), the public library sector, collective management organisations and relevant governmental entities, with the specific look on PLR. OMCs and expert groups shall meet regularly over a certain period. This will reflect the diversity of experiences and consider the different regional conditions.
• The results can be presented in the framework of an information session; regional seminars can of course also be considered at the request of interested countries.
• A further outcome can be a toolkit for PLR.

To the documents of the SCCR43

Read all given statements

Photo: Emmanuel Berrod. Copyright: WIPO. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License