The Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection, and Activism (QAMRA) and the Centre for Intellectual Property Research and Advocacy (CIPRA) jointly organised a roundtable titled ‘Copyright in Practice: Perspectives from Archives and Libraries.’

Event Details

• Venue: Ground Floor Conference Hall, Training Centre, NLSIU
• Day & Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026
• Timings: 9.30 AM – 1.30 PM

Open to the public. 

About the Roundtable

This roundtable examined how copyright law shapes – and sometimes constrains – the work of archives and libraries. Copyright is one of the most important, and very often poorly understood, aspect of archiving and librarianship.

Professionals in the fields of archives, libraries, and intellectual property and copyright law came together to address concerns and conceptualise best practices. The roundtable primarily had two sessions: the first consisted of archivists and librarians sharing their insights, experiences, and predictions, the second focussed on the exceptions to and limitations of copyright right law from a comparative perspective, looking at Indian and U.S. copyright law. The second part of the discussion addressed concerns raised in the first.

The roundtable featured a keynote by Professor Subbiah Arunachalam, a renowned scholar and activist in the area of open access.

Professor Arunachalam opened with remarks on open access, followed by sessions that addressed practical challenges as well as the role of copyright exceptions and limitations.

The format allowed for a direct exchange between practitioners and legal scholars, with real-world concerns feeding into the legal discussion and vice versa; important conversations about access to knowledge and challenges in enacting it were raised, and possible paths for future approaches were ventured.

Schedule

Keynote Speaker:
Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam, Renowned Scholar and Activist

Session 1:

• Deepika S., Senior Archivist, Archives at NCBS
• Shiju Alex, Chief Archivist and Director, Indic Digital Archive Foundation
• Madhan Muthu, Director, The Global Library, O. P. Jindal Global University
• Dr. Biswadeep Chakraborty, Archivist, India Foundation for the Arts, Bengaluru
• Mira Brunner, Chief Archivist, QAMRA Archival Project, NLSIU

Session 2:

• Ana Enriquez, Head of the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright, Penn State University Libraries, and Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, NLSIU
• Dr. Zakir T. Thomas, DPIIT IPR Chair Professor, NLSIU
• Dr. Arul George Scaria, Co-Director, CIPRA and Professor of Law, NLSIU

Photo gallery