Source: Music Publishers Association (MPA)
The British government plans to improve UK's copyright laws. For this purpose Professor Ian Hargreaves earlier this year had given recommendations which also covered topics important to music publishers. Following his report, the government now launched its 'consultation on copyright' which will run until 21 March 2012. The article posted on 14 December 2011 and more information may be viewed here.
 

Source: Book Industry Study Group (BISG) 
BISG has published a policy statement that details best practices for assigning ISBNs to digital products. It aims to prevent product identification confusion. The article posted on 7 December 2011 may be viewed here.
 

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP) 
The Global Repertoire Database Working Group, has now launched its Stakeholder Engagement and Scoping Study. The Study will involve a 20-week industry-wide consultation to determine the technical, data, business process and organisational design aspects of the Global Repertoire Database, as well as the approach to governance and funding. The article posted on 27 September 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
As WIPO Director General Francis Gurry resumed the international intellectual property (IP) community faces three major challenges in the coming years – management of demand of IP applications, the migration of all cultural content to the Internet, and enhancing the capacity of least developed and developing countries to use the IP system for encouraging innovation and creativity. The article posted on 26 September 2011 may be viewed here.

ISMN took part in a Regional Seminar for African ISBN agencies on 14 September 2011 in Pretoria with a presentation of the International Standard Music Number. 

On the occasion of the ISMN Annual General Meeting on 13 September 2011 in Pretoria South Africa became new member of the ISMN community. The ISMN agency will be oprated by the National Library in Pretoria. The photo shows John Tsebe, National Librarian of South Africa, and Hartmut Walravens signing the contract.

Source: Supply Chain Digest 
During the last months the Supply Chain Digest published several articles on the pros and cons and the future of RFID technology. Some of them may be viewed here: 6July2011, 27July2011, 10August 2011, 8September2011.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
At the third World Copyright Summit, organised by CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) on June 7 and 8 in Brussels, over 730 participants brought representatives from all creative repertoires together to discuss the future of the creative industry. They found to "share a common goal in supporting the rights of creators. Participants also agreed on the necessity to jointly find workable solutions for the challenges of the current digital marketplace. These include: initiatives for a Global Repertoire Database (GRD) and cross-border licensing for musical works; proposals to uphold the value of book content through a specific pricing model of eBooks, or the use of DRMs and the launch of legal platforms by book publishers; the harmonisation of the resale right for visual artists in Europe and hopefully worldwide; the need to harmonise audiovisual copyright laws across Europe to support digital distribution of films and ensure that authors get remunerated every time their works get used." The article posted on 11 August 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) 
Younison as a pan-European pressure group that strives to get the voice of music artists heard by politicians at the European Union (EU) level teamend up with the Features Artits Coalition to make sure the European Commission (EC), the executive body of the EU, takes into consideration artists’ needs whilst drafting a new directive on collective rights management. They also proclaimed a growing need for a pan-EU licensing system. The article posted on 25 June 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP) 
"This significant agreement which aims to educate and direct people towards legal content online reflects the increasing awareness of the importance of copyright protection and enforcement throughout the world and optimises the relationship between creators, service and content providers and consumers." "Online theft not only jeopardises jobs and the creative economy but threatens the very creativity that provides us with such a rich cultural environment. This "Copyright Alert" system will help people become more aware of the wide variety of legal offers that exist." Ger Hatton, Secretary General, ICMP, the global voice of music publishing. The article may be viewed here.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
WIPO announced a project to build a common digital platform which will help streamline the identification of protected musical works across 11 West African countries, helping creators from these countries get paid for their work through a simplified and standardized rights registration system. The article posted on 8 June 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
Representatives of the creative sector worldwide have welcomed commitments on intellectual property protection made by the G8 Summit today in Deauville, France.The Netherlands have joined the ISMN system. The joint statement of 16 organisations may be viewed here.

As a new member, The Netherlands have joined the ISMN system. The agency, run by the Muziek Centrum Nederland, will become operational, soon

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP) 
The ICMP Newsletter of 26 April 2011 reports - amongst other topics - on a Panel they had organised at the Frankfurt Music Fair: "New models for selling printed music online". It showed that many models for selling online already existed but that a big challenge for the industry was competing with the ‘Freemium’ model. Now, paid-for services had to be created. The participants saw that PDF should remain the format for digital sheet music files and that new software would adapt around it. The newsletter may be viewed here.

Source: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML)
The preliminary program for the IAML conference in Dublin on 24th-29th July 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) 
ALA encourages libraries and other institutions to use Preservation Week to connect communities through events, activities, and resources that highlight what can be done, individually and together, to preserve personal and shared collections. More about the event may be found here.

Source: Featured Artists Coalition 
In the UK, Professor Ian Hargreaves is currently leading an independent review for the government into how the intellectual property system can better drive growth and innovation. The article posted on March 8th 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Music Industry Newswire 
"If there could be agreed-upon standardized methods of communicating data …, the metadata that describes them (and the identifiers themselves that uniquely identify them), it would be a big step towards more accurate accounting of use." The article posted on March 4th 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Younison (Younison is an advocacy platform for music professionals dedicated to ensuring that they are fairly, accurately and directly compensated for the use of their works in the new digital environment.) 
Featured Artists Coalition (UK), Technopol (FRA) and DJ Monitor (the Netherlands) have joined forces with Younison to advocate for changes to the collective rights management framework in the European Union (EU), in order to ensure that artists are accurately and efficiently rewarded for the commercialization and use of their creative works across the EU. The article from Younison posted on March 4th 2011 can be found here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
The International ISTC Agency, the official Registration Authority for the International Standard Text Code (ISTC), recently announced the appointment of four new official registration agencies (ISTC-RAs). All will start operating in early 2011. The text posted on March 2nd 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
"…In this respect, Mr. Gurry said "an international music registry -- a global repertoire database -- would be a very valuable and needed step in the direction of establishing the infrastructure for global licensing."The text dated 24th February 2011 may be viewed here.

World-Renowned Creators, Political Leaders and Key Industry Players to Convene at World Copyright Summit in Brussels, June 7-8, 2011

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
CISAC announced the main program topics and speakers for the third World Copyright Summit - 7 & 8 June 2011: The release published on February 23rd 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: New York Times
The International Music Score Library Project has grown to be one of the largest sources of scores anywhere. The article posted on February 22nd 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: The European Library 
Registration is now open for The IFLA Presidential Meeting 2011. The theme is Libraries Driving Access to Knowledge: Action for Europe and the two-day conference will be held on April 14-15 in The Hague at the National Library of the Netherlands. The announcement may be viewed here.

Source: International Conferderation of Music Publishers (ICMP)
ICMP Secretary General Ger Hatton comments on European Voice article 'A lack of digital harmony' by Ian Wishart. The response from the ICMP can be found here.

Source: top40-charts.com 
ZMX Music today launched its new direct-to-fan sheet music delivery system. The article posted on February 16th 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) 
IIPA's 25th Piracy Report Documents the Challenge of Online & Physical Piracy in 40 Countries. The press release dated 15th February 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Supply Chain Digest 
"Other segments also focus on using RFID to improve their inbound and outbound quality, as well as minimize their shrinkage and manage their inventory". The article on how RFID helps the (apparel) retail supply chain posted on 2nd February 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Book Industry Study Group (BISG) - USA 
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) is the leading U.S. book trade association for supply chain standards, research, and best practices. Comments surrounding the BISG research report on ISBN posted on 26th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Max-Planck-Institut 
The report "Handling Scanned Sheet Music and Audio Recordings in Digital Music Libraries" may be viewed here.

Source: Publishing Perspectives 
"Enhanced metadata can increase discoverability of books and provide marketing information to the entire publishing supply chain." The article posted on 27th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Publishers Weekly 
Five Degrees Of Metadata: Small Changes Can Mean Big Sales. The blog posted on 24th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
How to easily identify all digital content contributors? The answer is ISNI - ISNI International Agency Established in London. The latest press release which was published on 23rd January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Booknet Canada 
ONIX (Online Information Exchange) is the standard in the publishing industry for computer-to-computer communication about bibliographic data. ONIX gives publishers the ability to share infinitely more information about their books with infinitely more people. More may be read about this topic here.

Source: International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) 
CISAC's Global Economic Survey analyses the royalty collection figures of CISAC's members worldwide and shows how they are protecting the interests (and incomes) of creators under a constantly changing environment. The latest Global Economic Survey which was published on 20th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) 
The report outlines the way that record companies have revolutionized their business models to meet the demands of digitally literate consumers. The Digital Music Report 2011 which was published on 20th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Music Industry News Network 
Musicnotes.com, the leading digital sheet music retailer and publisher, announced today sales of digital sheet music at its online store grew 25 percent in 2010. The article posted on 18th January 2011 may be viewed here.

This year's Panel and AGM will take place on 13 September 2011 in Pretoria, South Africa, by kind invitation of the National Library of South Africa.

Source: European Commission, Information Society 
"Comité des Sages" on bringing Europe's cultural heritage online presents its report "The new Renaissance". The report which was published on 10th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: Europeana/The New York Times 
US playing catch-up in a digital library race. The article posted on 8th January 2011 may be viewed here.

Source: International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 
The Board of the International ISBN Agency commissioned a study from Digital Publishing Partners LLC to provide an evidence base for developing its policy and actions regarding the assignment of ISBNs to e-books. The study which was posted on 5th January 2011 may be viewed here.