The 23rd session of the World Intellectual Property Organisation's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rightsended on 2nd December 2011. 

WIPO Member States made significant progress towards achieving a global set of copyright limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives. This is welcomed by the:

For the first time, the WIPO SCCR, the main body that shapes international copyright law, dedicated three extra days to discussion of limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives.

 

Library and archives groups have been advocating for an international treaty so that WIPO Member States establish a set of basic, minimum limitations and exceptions for the benefit of libraries, archives, and their users in their national copyright laws. Currently, libraries operate under a patchwork of provisions that differ from country to country that often do not meet the needs of libraries especially in the global, digital environment.

 

SCCR/23 concluded with agreement for further discussion on a list of topics relating to libraries and archives which includes preservation, right of reproduction and supply of copies, legal deposit, library lending, parallel importation, cross-border uses, orphan works, retracted and withdrawn works, liability of libraries and archives, technological measures of protection, contracts, and the right to translate works.