Day 4 of SCCR 31 started with a few questions relating to yesterday’s presentation on the study on museum and limitations and exceptions. The Chair called on the regional groups for general remarks on agenda item related to limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives. The individual member states followed. The worst was the EU, and some of the best (so far) were India (a must read eloquent statement), Colombia, Ecuador, Chili, Nigeria, Iran, Indonesia and Azerbaidjan.
>> GREECE: Thank you Mr. Chair. At the outset, Group B can’t agree more with the important role that libraries and archives play in cultural and social development in particular, as the studies presented during the previous sessions have described, many countries have already established their own exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives which works well, respecting — respecting domestic legal systems within the current international framework. It means that the work of this committee should be shaped in a manner reflecting this reality, and complimenting the well functioning current situation.
As regards the working methods, we would like to thank you once again, Mr. Chair, for your continuing efforts and dedication to find a common ground upon which we could stand. Our group appreciates to structure this from effective and efficient work. At the same time, some concerns have been raised in our group in relation to the way our work is structured, and the meaning said structure might have with respect to the direction we would be brought to. We would like to thank you for your explanation of the last session, that to our understanding means that the aim of the exercise is just a structured discussion to find a shared understanding.
More than that, Group B believes that the presentation by professor Kenneth Crews can help us inform our discussions as to a way forward. We would like to reiterate that we should build our work in SCCR upon this considerable achievement. The discussion at objectives and principles level as proposed by United States could compliment such work. Both of these approaches could also realize a structured discussion which the Chair underlined at the last session.
We shouldn’t turn our eyes away from the reality that no consensus exists within this committee, for the normative work and such reality should be duly taken into account in the consideration to find a consensual basis upon which all members could stand and work together.
Mr. Chair, Group B will continue to engage in the discussions on the limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives in a constructive and faithful manner, and I thank you Mr. Chair.
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>> NIGERIA: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning. My — the statement will be read on behalf of the African Group and is a general statement on exceptions and limitations. It’s not specific to libraries and archives. As we had done in previous sessions of SCCR, the Africa Group continues to underscore the importance of the principles of exceptions and limitations in the IP system to meet specific objectives especially in the context of facilitating information and knowledge, which is the SCCR objective on exceptions and limitations for a great number of WIPO Member States.
The advent of the digital environment magnifies the need to include as much as possible the widest percentage of the public and the information and the knowledge space.
The Africa Group appreciates the different level of maturities of the SCCR agenda topics. Nevertheless, we are concerned at the lack of progress on the exceptions and limitations on the committee’s work. In that regard we reiterate the international legal instruments for the two exceptions and limitations subjects under the SCCR’s consideration. We urge Member States to text based work for to the 12 mandate of the General Assembly of this subject. Under such a framework the national experiences of Member States could significantly enhance the deliberations we hold under those subjects.
The group would like to reiterate again its readiness to engage constructively in the committees, deliberations and the exceptions and limitations and we look in order to supporting the work you — the work program you have preferred for exceptions and limitations, both for libraries and archives and educational research institutions and person with other disabilities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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>> BRAZIL: Thank you, Chair, for giving me the floor. I have the honor of delivering this intervention on behalf of the Latin American Caribbean countries. GRULAC supports an open and frank discussion of the limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives that does not prejudge the nature of the outcome in order to reach solutions for libraries and archives around the world.
GRULAC is interested in the discussion of the proposal submitted by Brazil, Ecuador, India and African Group regarding the treatment of this topic. In order to promote the work on exceptions and limitations, our group supports the debate on the chart proposed by the President. Having said that, we would like to request the Secretariat to contribute copies of the chart to the delegates in order to facilitate discussions.
Thank you, Chair.
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>> ROMANIA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning to everybody.
On behalf of the CEBS group, I would like first to welcome the presentation of the study on copyright, limitations and exceptions for museums and to thank the authors, both for their work and for engaging in discussion with the committee.
We believe that the study tackles actual practical questions that museums are facing in their daily work and that it — the study can be of great help, as it may serve as an inspiration for legislators in many countries.
With regards to limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives, we are convinced that the substantive debates that took place during the previous SCCR sessions were beneficial to our Member States. So we are interested in continuing such a process. This is provided by international copyright treaties offered a wide framework for establishing exceptions and states may need more guidance about how to best craft specific exceptions, especially in the current digital era.
Yet the clear link that exists between exceptions and copyright and historical realities, as well as traditions in every country would make the expiration to a legally binding instrument inappropriate in our view. This is why the CEBS group strongly prefers the exchange of best practices in order to learn about examples by each Member States individually. We believe this approach can be an adequate way forward.
In In any case, we believe that our work should be based on the understanding that establishing a fair balance between the author’s rights and the interest of the society is essential for a viable copyright system.
Thank you.
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>> CHINA: Libraries and archives in terms of preservation of cultural heritage is playing a great role. We are thankful to the authors for the presentation on the study of limitations and copyright for museums and we are pleased to see that many countries on the basis of respecting IP law provide limitations and exceptions for museums. Again, we would like to thank the Secretariat and the Chair for the work done in the exception and limitations in libraries and archives. We support continued discussion in our session and to continue to share experiences, and I think this discussion is conducive to the balance of rights between right holders and the public, and we will constructively participate in the discussions, and we hope that the issue would make progress.
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>> INDIA: India has the honor of speaking on behalf of the Asia and Pacific group to present the common position of our group on the issue of limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives. Limitations and exceptions are essential requisites for all norm setting exercises and understanding in national and international fora. These provisions are vital for achieving the desired equilibrium between interest of right holders and public welfare in scientific, cultural and social progress, especially in developing and Least Developed Countries.
This balance of interest is reflected in the Article 7 of TRIPS agreement, which stresses, and I quote, the need to maintain a balance between the right of authors and the larger public interest, particularly education, research, and access to information, unquote.
Libraries and archives are two vital institutions of society. Mostly operating on a noncommercial basis. In in most developing and Least Developed Countries, they are often the predominant, if not the only source of material for students and accommodations.
In fact, people in all countries, irrespective of their level of development, have benefits for exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives. An international agreement on exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives that addresses specific cross border barriers are is critical to ensure equal access to information and supporting research, education and development. Such an agreement would allow the benefit to be extra politicalled for the good of all instead of restricting them to individual countries.
This agreement would require uniformity and balance at the national level, including the harmonization of domestic laws and policies, which would also contribute to safeguarding and promoting the legitimate interest of all stakeholders. Members of the group also wish to reiterate their previous proposal of appointing a facilitator or friend of the Chair, like other WIPO committees to shape up the text to a full working text to ensure progress.
With these words, I thank you once again, Mr. Chair.
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>> EUROPEAN UNION: Thank you, Chairman, for giving me the floor. Is the microphone working in the EU and the Member States believe in the museums for cultural and social progress. These institutions play an essential roll in dissemination of culture and help to preserve our history.
We therefore, believe that there is merit in this discussing how a balanced framework can enable these institutions to fulfill the public interest mission and we are willing to engage constructively in these discussions.
At the same time, we think that the committee should strive to use time and resources efficiently and to a clear purpose. The current lack of clarity as to the goals and expected deliverables of this agenda item is not helpful in this respect. We believe that such clarity should be established in order for the committee to work towards meaningful results. Libraries, archives and other institutions serve local, scholarly and other communities in very different ways. They work with copyright systems through a variety of licensing mechanisms as well as relying on the space provided by the exceptions and limitations that legislators across the world have provided. This is thanks to the space offered by the current international legal system for national policies to respond to specific needs and traditions. We prize that flexibility and we consider that WIPO Member States can make full use of it to devise, adopt and implement meaningful exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives.
The EU and its Member States consider that the role of WIPO should focus on our exceptions and limitations and can function efficiently within the framework of existing international treaties. As we have said — as we have stated in past sessions of this committee, our favored approach is one where WIPO Member States take responsibility for their own legal frameworks, spotted by an inclusive exchange of experiences and best practices, and where necessary with the assistance of WIPO.
What is the need for further winding rules on the international level is far from conceptual on this committee. We hope that the importance of well-designed national systems of copyright rules, including as regards exceptions and limitations is supported by all delegations in.
This respect, we cannot support work towards legally binding instruments, but we believe that a meaningful way forward could be to focus on a more thorough and systemic understanding those against the library and needs given solutions followed by an investigation of possible solutions among those available under the current international framework.
We think that on this agenda item, the committee should work towards this general outcome, and undertake to find a conceptual way to achieve it. Thank you, Chair.
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> COLOMBIA: Yeah. Thank you, Chair. Initially, we would like to congratulate you on the way in which you are leading the committee’s work, and I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate the authors on the study on exceptions and limitations for museums, because I wasn’t able to do that before. And I would also like to say that while we consider that the international framework does contain the necessary tools for implementing exceptions and limitations in the domestic legislation of each of our countries, we also think it’s necessary to continue with open, sincere and productive discussions on exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives in these committees.
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>> RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Thank you, Chairman. The Russian Federation also supports active work and the continuation of the discussion of these matters which we have been discussing for a great many years now. We consider that we already have a unanimous view that there should be exceptions and limitations for certain categories and certain limited areas and I think it would be advisable if these exceptions and limitations were to be discussed in a comprehensive way, not in stages, that is separately for libraries and archives, separately for educational institutions and scientific research. And in that way, we would be able to bring together these two areas. They are very close. They were developed at developing culture and the need for providing access to the public to knowledge and education.
And it seems to me that we might be able to be more effective if we discussed these issues in parallel. As I have already said on more than one occasion, Russian Federation has already provided for such exceptions and limitations in our civil code for 2008, where we adopted — we have adopted a number of amendments that came into force in 2014, exceptions and limitations for libraries, archives, education institutions and scientific research, and furthermore, I would like to point out as we heard, it’s very important that in most countries, we have a single approach to these views.
Just a very small comment connected with the great amount of work that we have done over the last few years. It is very important to respect the limitation between the existing right systems provided for by the Berne Convention and other international treaties, and new provisions — the new provisions that we are introducing today on exceptions and limitations so that we don’t have a situation where copyright just consists exclusively of exceptions and limitations because then what would we be protecting?
So I would like to appeal to everyone to be very careful in examining and adopting norms, and be very careful when making these amendments, because we have to protect on the one hand the interests of the public, and on the other hand we should never forget the creators of this subject matter are authors because it seems to me that one of our main tasks is to support authors creativity and creativity in general throughout the world. Thank you.
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>> ECUADOR: Chairman, firstly, I would like to congratulate the authors who have prepared the study, which was presented before because we didn’t have the opportunity to do that at the time. In this forum, it’s important to construct an international regime which would allow us to address the rights of rights holders adequately.
However, it’s also important to design a legal framework which allows society to have access to the knowledge on a legal basis and with legal instruments which are balanced and in line with the requirements of libraries, archives, educational institutions and people who have other kinds of disabilities require.
This fair balance, the library, archives and repositories will be spaces to compile, maintain and provide information and they play a particularly important role in guaranteeing the right to access information, knowledge. As a consequence, there’s a need to provide them with the necessary legal instruments, to be able to truly comply with their important social function. That is why we would like to support the statement which was made by the GRULAC coordinator. And along these same lines for the delegation of Ecuador, the treatment of the items linked to limitations and exceptions for education and research and people with disabilities is of particular importance.
It is important to consider that libraries and archives do conserve the heritage, not only of a country or a specific sector, but of humanity as a whole, while each state, of course has the possibility of generates its own limitations and exceptions. It’s not merely logical but appropriate to seek to develop a global agreement which would provide us with standards saying the world over and therefore we agree with what the republic of Colombia just said.
Our delegation is particularly interested in this agenda item and we stand ready to carry on with the necessary work to finalize the development of an international solution, which will provide general principles expressed in clear rules.
Therefore, we would like to echo the request. GRULAC coordinator to work with the document prepared by the Chair.
Thank you very much, Chair.
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> SINGAPORE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As this is our first time taking the floor, we would like to congratulate you on your reappointment and we would like to extend our gratitude to you for your able leadership in steering this group of discussions. We would like to thank the WIPO Secretariat and the authors of the various studies presented so for for their previous work on the library of and archives.
Singapore believes that copyright includes incentive in new work and libraries and archives provide access to knowledge, promoting development and disseminating culture. The work of libraries and archives should be facilitated while providing incentives for the creation of new works. It is in that light that Singapore already possesses a range of limitations and exceptions for benefit of libraries and archives, consistent with the flexibilities built into the Berne Convention and the TRIPS agreement. For instance, under Singapore law, libraries and archive have electronic copies available within the premises, as long as users cannot make copies for themselves or send copies to others.
The harmonization of minimum standards already enjoyed by many Member States can be an appropriate tool to address issues across border access to works was was done in the Marrakesh Treaty. Our delegation looks forward to the further development of this important topic.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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>> UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Work on copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives. Libraries and archives have an important role to play in ensuring the preservation and the dissemination of knowledge. The role played by these institutions are vital to achieving the copyright systems goal of creating encouraging creativity. Our proposals that set forth high level principles and objectives, for exceptions for libraries and archives at the international level. We believe such a principles based approach provides a good basis for moving forward and further the goal of improving national copyright exceptions and limitations. We look forward to learning more about the other experiences of other countries regarding exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives
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>> CHILE: Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Exceptions and limitations are a topic of great interest for Chile. We believe strongly that the foundation of development of intellectual property should be the constant seeking of a balance between rights and facilitating access to knowledge and cultural. It’s an aim which is impossible to comply with like instruments of exceptions and limitations. Chile has been one of those who promoted the WIPO Development Agenda and its recommendations 19 and 22, which established under the framework of WIPO’s mandate, debates will be held on how to facilitate access to have mentioned technology for least developed and developing countries in order to increase innovation and creativity and to facilitate their activities and the standard setting activities of this house should contribute to the development goals approved in the United Nations system.
And without prejudice, the results of considerations of Member States on issues such as the possible flexibilities, exceptions and limitations of Member States.
In this regard, in this forum, the right to access to culture established as a human right by the United Nations may be realized through these important tools. Developing countries like ours know how to use them.
In the SCCR, Chile was the country which in 2004, proposed the introduction of the topic of limitations and exceptions and in 2013 saw saw the first results Marrakesh Treaty.
In parallel, the work is keeping this topic on the agenda and we believe that we must avail ourselves of the opportunity that we are faced with to have ail constructive debate on the objectives and the implications of exceptions and limitations.
Chairman, we know that it is hard work to look to find consensus on the 11 topics exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives and therefore we would like to have support in this area. We have various views of results in this area. That is why, we stand ready to explore alternatives and to seek powers of consensus to come to an international solution for these issues.
Sir, together with our flexibility, we stand ready to continue to work on these debates with the view that we can continue to work on the topic of limitations and exceptions.
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> SUDAN: Thank you, Chairman. I would like to thank you for the able way in which you are leading our work. Sudan is a country which has contributed greatly to and benefited from exceptions and limitations. We introduced this into our legislation in 2013. It’s now in force.
The comprehensive study which was carried out by Professor crews has demonstrated that there are a number of countries which introduced exceptions and limitations into the national legislation. This is already development. Now we are living in a world where development is accelerate, and technology and means of communication are developing at a great speed.
We need to take into account this new generation who have adopted this new technology. Studies which have been carried out on our work and there are a large number of parallel meetings which have been organized by WIPO to look at our work. We also had the presentation yesterday which set out a large number of aspects in — on this issue. It showed us the importance of opening up to art, because museums are not merely limited to heritage, which has been registered for UNESCO, but all the workshops and seminars organized in this regard could allow us to develop a shared view on the protection of knowledge and how to address this, and that is one of the key principles of the work of this very organization.
In order to make progress with all my due respect, we have this three-step test, which exists in a number of legislations already and they have adopted this — this process, and this gives us a new space to allow us to transmit knowledge, and it goes beyond national borders.
But we cannot have this unless we link it to the limitations already envisaged by TRIPS. All of this together could assist us in our work coming to a common agreement and that’s the basis from which we ought to work on behalf of developing countries.
We need this effort to ensure that we can participate and contribute to and facilitate the task of future generations who are going to carry forward this new international understanding into the future. Creativity on a national level and its limited interests do not allow us for a more wide spread exchange. We need a global international agreement and we need a legally binding international instrument, because we know that in order to have the full effect of knowledge, it needs to be shared and not limited.
Another aspect to consider is that we need to shed light on a number of issues. I would like to thank the Chair for all of the efforts he’s undertaken, in order to compile all of the points on which we came to an agreement or which we discussed the previous sessions.
We need to hear more from experts, experts who allow us to get to know what the practices are to ensure that we can come to practical solutions.
Chairman, to summarize, we need to consider in parallel the material repercussions which have been indicated in the report by Professor Crews and the study on museums. We also need to consider future possibilities in order to be able to have a shared benefit for all in our digital environment. Thank you.
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>> NIGERIA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Nigeria aligns with the statements of the African Group, and the Nigerian delegation thanks the author on the copyright exceptions and limitations for museums for their undertaking and the presentation of the study. We found the study informative and believe that it would significantly contribute to SCCR discussions on the subject of exceptions and limitations. We believe this is first by libraries, archives, educational research institutions and persons with other disabilities in gaining effective access to information and knowledge and the good faith administration, this is indeed a global issue that requires an international solution.
We share the view of many developing and Least Developed Countries, especially those with the very high percentage of youth population that an international instrument to govern exceptions and limitations in these views would be vital to ensuring the development of an international copyright system that balances the rise of both the rights holders users and also satisfies the earnings to access to information and knowledge.
Mr. Chairman, Nigeria appreciates the rubric of exceptions and limitations in the SCCR, while acknowledging the different views my delegation is optimistic that we can progressively work towards a convergence of varying views.
In than, Nigeria treats the readiness to engage positively for a fair and balanced use of exceptions and limitations for libraries, archives, educational and research institutions and persons with disables. I thank you, Mr. Chair.
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>> IRAN: Thank you, Mr. Chair. My delegation would like to go associate itself with a statement made by the distinguished delegation of India on behalf of the Asian Group. The limitations and exceptions are a key part of copyright law and play an essential role in creating a balance in the international copyright system with a view to empowering the creativity, increasing educational opportunities and promoting inclusion and access to cultural works.
The existing limitations and exceptions envisions in current international copyright treaties do not sufficiently address emerging technology cultural changes. These authority comings should be rectified. Therefore, we believe that the pragmatic norm setting solutions are essential to move towards a balanced international copyright law for the benefit of right holder and public policy issues.
My delegation strongly supports establishing a legally binding international instruments for limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives, an also research and educational institutions, that those institutions are important in giving people access to information and culture.
Such a legally binding instrument would make it possible to meet the needs of all countries in terms of legitimizization work. In the case of libraries and archives, the objective of the possibility is strengthening the capacity of libraries and archives to provide access to and enable preservation of library and archive material to carry out the public service role.
Mr. Chairman, we are of the view that the committee should expect that the process on the that the committee should expect that the process on the text based association and article discussion on each identified topic contained in the working document. My delegation supports the proposal made by India on behalf of the Asian Group that the committee should consider opportunity — should consider appointing facilitators or friends of Chair to develop working text for the exceptions and the limitations from the documents at hand.
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INDIA: Thank you, Chair. Under your able and skillful guidance, SCCR 31 is progressing at the desired pace. The progress achieved in the deliberations of the Broadcasting Treaty needs to be matched with that of the deliberations on exceptions and limitations of libraries, archives, museums and educational institutions.
Libraries are spaces for future knowledge generation and is served as a social leveler for the poor and under privileged. Knowledge and the dissemination have strong undercurrents than the previous century. The previous library is expanded as virtual libraries to be accessed in IT gadgets and SmartPhones. This to virtual access is also transforming the way libraries are conceived and uses.
Nevertheless, this transformation still has its core. The issue of access to billions of underprivileged section in the developing and least developed spaces. India is accelerating its development on focus of education, skills and R&D. So is the case with many of the countries that are transforming the human resources for a life with dignity and progress.
In such context, the exceptions and limitations to libraries needs to be prioritized and matched with the fast-based digital information way. This requires an international framework in a constructive way to consolidate and expand the purpose and the scope of libraries.
Archives and museums similarly are the bedrock of cultural anthropological, and museum structure shifts the identity of the members of the space and therefore gives the solidarity and unity. The limitations of the exceptions framework is a legal and moral obligation of human kind and, again, requests appropriate international framework for its effective progress.
Similarly, educational institutions need effective exceptions and limitations regime under international framework as the digital world often is a bottomless phenomenon. The exceptions and lippations for persons with other disabilities are also looking forward with the successful conclusion of Marrakesh and repeat cooperation from the different parts of the world.
India, along with the African Group, Ecuador and Chile and the past has given the 11 points text and we look forward to that being carried. It’s important to emphasize Article 7 of TRIPS which contains the enforcement of IP should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to transfer dissemination of technology to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological knowledge in a manner conducive to rights and obligations.
In that spirit it’s appropriate for international framework to cast the limitations and the exceptions in a nonambiguous manner for the progress of the human resources across the world.
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> AZERBAIJAN: Thank you, Chairman. Distinguished, Chairman, I would also like to congratulate you on your election to this post and say it’s very pleasant to work with you. And we hope that under your guidance we will achieve good results and achieve the tasks of our committee. I would also like to thank the Secretariat for preparing very useful background documents.
Now, to come to the point, our delegation also Vesss that this is an important problem that exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives. As is well known, the point of libraries is to create as varied and as great as possible resources and keep them in a good state, preserve them, in other words and facilitate access to these archives.
In many countries, electronic libraries have been set up or are being set up. There’s no doubt that electronic libraries has changed greatly the approach to copyright and has added an awful lot of problems, digital technology to some extent has contributed to the copyright system.
So in connection with this throughout the world active work is going on on creating ways of regulating copyright on the Internet, however, it would be not correct to approach exceptions and limitations to copyright only from the positions of libraries and their contribution to society.
First of all, we have to consider this as an integral part of copyright, copyright contributes to open knowledge, the spread of knowledge. Libraries and archives are treasuries of this information and knowledge and Azerbaijan, we have more than 3,000 libraries in the national library alone, according to data from 2030, the number of users is about 150,000 and then there are the virtual users, even more of them. The number of libraries with electronic catalogues is more than 50, and in the archives of the libraries, and there are more than 170,000 works, and we are continuing to work in this area.
The drafting of new recommendations on copyright in this sphere of electronic libraries is one of the very important issues that was discussed at a meeting, a seminar, a international meeting in Baku on the 1st of December this year on exceptions for libraries and educational institutions, organized by copyright institute of Azerbaijan and WIPO.
Officials from WIPO came. There were representatives of IFRA, IEPA and other governmental organizations and NGOs and people from Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan and other neighboring countries and we discussed practices related to exceptions and limitations for copyrights and libraries. All of them who took the floor expressed their support for the preparatory work by WIPO’s states on international treaty on the subject.
And they also pointed out that now that we are going into a digital era, we need new international standards. When we are transferring information from one medium to another, so that we can make available works from libraries, those that they consider acceptable. For my part, I would like to note that we are prepared to make our contribution to Azerbaijan, to the achievement of concrete results at this meeting.
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>> JAPAN: Thank you, Mr. Chair. We agreat importance to the role of libraries and archives. They provide public with better access to knowledge, and they collect and preserve a variety of cultural properties and assets. Many Member States already have provisions on limitation and exceptions for library and archives in their national laws, yet reflecting upon social diversity, the definition of libraries and archives. This means the exceptions and limitations regarding libraries and archives are also different from country to country.
Therefore, we are of the view that sharing of national practices will be useful to find the best possible ways to make limitations the effectorry function within the international and national framework. In this sense, the discussion objectives and principles as proposed by the US delegation is quite useful. We are engaging work in a constructive and faithful manner.
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>> INDONESIA: I thank you very much Mr. Chair. I congratulate you as the Chair of this meeting and also the vice chairs and regarding the agenda of the exception and the limitations for libraries and archives we would like to express our points of view regarding this agenda. First, we would like to inform the Indonesia has enacted a law, a new revised copyrights law, number 28 in 2014, and it is mentioned in the — this law an exception and limitation on libraries and archives for research proposals.
Unfortunately, we have another thought that the exception and the limitations should also be discussed further in international sphere that we need an international instruments to regulate the exceptionen at limitation, not only in national level. Secondly, in this law, it is also mentioned regarding the traditional cultural expectations. So for us, the definition of the copyrights is also traditional cultural expression.
In this regard, we have legal framework that copyrights is also traditional cultural expressions and, of course, there are limitations and limitations for those items.
And thirdly, after hearing the discussion in this room, we are of the view that we support the statement made by Indian delegation on behalf of the African — the Asia and Pacific group. And also it is mentioned by our distinguished delegation from Iran we — we support the second proposal and we think that we can discuss further about the chart here we have.
Another point we want to attract to the attention of us here, this issue is not an issue of developing countries only. This is not a request of the developing countries only. This is for propose of human mankind. In our understanding, we have so many challenges in the future. We have so many issues, global issues that we have to tackle and we need to research to face the global challenges. Therefore, the exception and the limitation for libraries and archives and also research institutions are important for us to work together to find a solution for global challenge
Another point we want to attract to the attention of us here, this issue is not an issue of developing countries only. This is not a request of the developing countries only. This is for propose of human mankind. In our understanding, we have so many challenges in the future. We have so many issues, global issues that we have to tackle and we need to research to face the global challenges. Therefore, the exception and the limitation for libraries and archives and also research institutions are important for us to work together to find a solution for global challenges. We would like to highlight that it is very important from all groups in WIPO.
We cannot in agreement with the view that this is only a request of the developing countries but this is for the benefit of all groups and we are also of the view that for the guarantee of legal certainty, we need a legal instrument to regulate the exception and limitations for libraries and archives and research institutions. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.