A message from our Chair on World Book and Copyright Day and World IP Day 2021
A message from Barbara Hayes, Chair of PLR International, on World Book and Copyright Day and World IP Day 2021
“To create is to live twice”, said writer Albert Camus.
For more than a year, our countries and communities have suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact on our economies, our lives, our families, is incommensurable. Yet, through the lockdown periods, many of us found comfort reading a book, listening to music, playing video games and watching movies. The pandemic has, at the same time, showed to us how essential our creative industries are, and also how fragile they are.
The publishing sector, like others, has been hit very hard. The closure of bookshops and libraries, the cancellation of book fairs, has had a big impact on the income and livelihood of authors and publishers.
Public lending right, or PLR, is one component of the book ecosystem, allowing millions of authors and other rightsholders to be remunerated when their books are borrowed in public libraries. During the pandemic, authors, libraries, and those administering PLR systems have strived to maintain and advance PLR payments and communicate how valuable libraries and reading are to our wellbeing.
To celebrate World Book and Copyright Day and World IP Day, and acknowledge the importance of PLR, PLR International will publish on the social media a selection of quotes from writers and PLR administrators, celebrating the importance of literature, books, reading and arts in our lives.
I invite all of you to read these quotes, share them, and to add yours.
For many authors, PLR payments have been an essential lifeline through the pandemic. It has enabled them to continue creating and publishing.
The pandemic is not over yet, and the reconstruction work is only starting. I am confident that PLR will make a significant contribution, for the good of literature and of culture.
May we continue to support and help all those who, through their creations, are making our lives and world a better place.
Barbara Hayes,
Chair of the Steering Committee of Public Lending Right International