CLASS proudly hosted the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisation (IFRRO) World Congress (IWC) 2025 from 28 – 30 October 2025.
Approximately 170 delegates from across 80 countries worldwide, including guests from international organisations such as WIPO and UNESCO, were in attendance for the IWC 2025.
With discussions held on the various socio-political and cultural issues affecting authors, publishers and the wider literary works community, the congress proved to be thought-provoking, providing attendees fresh insights into copyright developments on an international scale. The many advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) technology also added depth to the several dialogue sessions held on the ethical, legal and licensing issues on copyright matters. Not forgetting the various workshops on related topics such as advocacy and public lending rights issues that took place throughout the congress, the IWC 2025 was highly informative, providing all those in attendance with valuable key-takeaways.
Mr Edwin Tong SC – Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs, Singapore, graced the event as its Guest-of-Honour. Mr Tong detailed how balanced copyright practices continues to play a part in fostering creativity, saying, “Fair compensation for creators ensures the sustainability of the creative economy. It’s a virtuous cycle. If you do not fairly compensate creators for what they produce, after a while, they will drop off the ecosystem. There will no longer be good creators.” Mr Tong’s speech further echoes the importance of the work carried out by IFRRO in ensuring proper remuneration to creators, to which outgoing IFFRO President, Ms Tracey Armstrong, mentioned that “It is these critical aspects; copyright, collective management and compensated use of text and image based works, alongside the empowerment of authors and publishers, through effective collective management that unite us here in this community today.” Evidently, copyright protection is of critical importance towards a robust IP sector.
Hosting the IWC 2025 represents yet another significant milestone in CLASS’s short and humble journey. We thank everyone for their support and all those who have helped us to make the IWC 2025 a success!
Click on the following links below to view past IFRRO World Congresses:
