World Book and Copyright Day is April 23rd. The day strives to promote reading, publishing, and the protection of intellectual property rights throughout the world through the use of copyright. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) is the originator of World Book and Copyright Day. UNESCO’s stated initiative for 2009 is to “explore the paramount function of books for the development of quality education and the link between publishing and human rights.” Beirut has been declared the World Book Capital 2009.It is a significant day for many reasons, and it should be noted that the fundamental concept of copyright protection remains of great importance to authors, perhaps now more than ever when access to content of books, articles, poems and essays has become so open and easy. The date April 23rd was originally connected with noting the importance of books in 1923 when booksellers in Catalonia, Spain designated the day as one to honor the author Miguel de Cervantes, who died on that date. It became part of the celebrations that took place on Saint George’s Day (also April 23rd) on which it had been tradition since the Middle Ages for men to give roses to their lovers. And since 1925, in exchange, women gave books.

UNESCO instituted World Book and Copyright Day during its 1995 conference, citing that date as also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare and the anniversary of the death or birth of many other world-famous authors. UNESCO’s concern for safeguarding copyright goes back, however, to at least 1952, at which time the Universal Copyright Convention was adopted under UNESCO’s aegis to promote international copyright protection.Why pay so much attention to world copyright laws? For one, copyright fosters creativity. Authors and publishers are more likely to devote time and energy to creative work when it will be protected from unfair use. Copyright law also promotes important industries, such as printing, publishing, multimedia, audio-visual, phonographic, cinematographic, crafts, and design. Copyright protection enhances international understanding in that the distribution of books is essential for the promotion of cultural diversity. Therefore it can be said that copyright protection promotes world peace.

Piracy then is a threat to international economical and cultural development and, eventually, to the safety and stability of the world.Copyright law is in fact national law, meaning each country is free to determine the extent of protection it will apply to authors and copyright holders within its own borders. There have been many international agreements with the purpose of extending copyright protection to foreign authors within nations, in addition to their own, that enjoy the fruits of their work. Some of these agreements are the Berne Convention of 1886(revised in 1971), the Universal Copyright Convention of 1952 (revised in 1971), the TRIPAgreement of 1994 (having to do with trade and intellectual property rights), and the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Copyright Treaty of 1996. The majority of countries today follow one of these agreements. In countries that have signed these agreements, foreign authors do enjoy the same rights as national authors. These rights normally address national treatment, non-discrimination, and certain minimum standards regarding scope and duration of rights.

Normally copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 50 years post mortem in the United States and 70 years post mortem in some other nations. If an author wishes to challenge the use of material, he or she must consult the copyright law in the country in which the protection is sought.In the digital age, proponents of copyright and intellectual property law concentrate on anti-circumvention provisions to ensure that technology does not circumvent the protections of copyright and intellectual property rights. The scope and wide usage of the Internet however make this challenge ever more difficult. Recent controversies such as the Author’s Guild class action suit against Google for using snippets and extracts without permission and the ongoing battle between newspapers and news services and Google, the Drudge Report, and other Internet sites illustrate how managing rights and protecting content and its creators is changing to address the new world in which we now operate.

Dorrance Publishing enthusiastically joins UNESCO in celebrating World Book and Copyright Day this year. To mark the occasion, during the month of April, Dorrance will make available to all who are interested a free special report - “Copyright and You”- that can be found at their on-line bookstore located at DorranceBookstore.com. Dorrance believes that books are more important today than ever before when the crises confronting the world will require educated populations in every land to explore the possibilities and find the answers for living together on this planet. Because books and copyright are driving forces for individual creativity throughout the world, the future of books and copyright concerns all people and all nations. Since Dorrance Publishing Company publishes authors from many countries all around the globe, the company strongly supports world copyright laws as we believe all authors should.Honoring the copyright protection of the work of others helps authors to protect their own rights as well.