Blaca, IPI to mark Rome anniversary

This year's Blaca-IPI seminar takes place on 5 October 2011 at the London office of Bird & Bird (15 Fetter Lane , London EC4A 1JP). Its theme is "The 50th Anniversary of the Rome Convention" -- an anniversary that might easily have slipped by quite unnoticed in the heat of the various live copyright debates over file-sharing, ISP liability, orphan works, the cloud, collecting societies, piracy and so on.

The first session ("The Rome Convention’s History and Future") is chaired by Professor Johanna Gibson, wearing her IPI hat, and features the following contributions:

• "Rome Convention 1961: fifty years on: Retrospect and Prospect" by Professor Adrian Sterling;
  
• “From copyright to neighbouring rights and related rights, from the Rome Convention to TRIPS and WPPT” by Dr Gillian Davies;
   
• “Progress in the Standing Committee and the road to a Diplomatic Conference” by Tom Rivers

After a bit of a debate and a pause for changing chairmen, the second session ("Collective licensing as a sibling of the Rome Convention?") will kick off under the watchful eye of Gillian Davies, wearing her Blaca hat.

• “The Role of Collective licensing and the recent challenges” by Dominic McGonigal;
  
• “Extended Collective Licensing: a solution or an additional problem?” by Hubert Best.

Then there's a bit more debate, followed by the traditional dash for the drinks.


Registration: begins at 4.30pm; the event itself starts at 5.00pm and the whole show fnishes at 7.10pm.


The number of seats is limited and registration is required (just email Craig Kelly here and tell him you're coming). There is no registration fee for members of IPI or Blaca, but ordinary mortals must pay a thoroughly modest £20.