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Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ukrainian comics presented at Bologna Children's Book Fair
The International Children's Book Fair started in Bologna on Monday 31 March, and Ukraine is being represented by 25 publishing houses. Source: Ukrainian Book Institute Details: The Ukrainian national stand, like last year, is decorated with illustrations by Oleksandr Shatokhin from the "quiet book" The Yellow Butterfly. All this is accompanied by leaflets with information about Ukrainian children killed or deported by Russia, as well as about destroyed libraries. Leaflets for visitors Photo: Tetiana Petrenko Olena Odynoka, Ukrainian Book Institute Deputy Director for International Cooperation, said that during the first day of the fair, the Ukrainian stand was visited by representatives of the Federation of European Publishers, representatives of the Creative Europe financial fund that finances cultural projects, and partners of the Ukrainian Book Institute from European countries. "We strive to inform the international audience as much as possible about the challenges faced by Ukraine and, in particular, the Ukrainian book sector. It is important for us to involve partners in supporting Ukrainian culture, as this is also a contribution to our struggle," commented Olena Odynoka. This year, the organisers have brought together twentieth-century illustrators with contemporary artists, creating pairings that demonstrate the continuity and influence of previous generations. "We have a powerful school of illustration that our 'neighbours' [Russia - ed.] have repeatedly tried to appropriate. Our task is therefore to restore and popularise this heritage, to show that Ukrainian culture is rich and original," said Olena Staranchuk, co-curator of Pictoric, which together with Book Arsenal created the exhibition for the Bologna Fair. At the exhibition, the organisers combined twentieth-century illustrators with contemporary artists Photo: Tetiana Petrenko "As for the stand design itself, it was my project. We tried to make it bright and relevant to our reality. It worked because it attracted attention. Of course, the topic of war remains key for us. At the same time, we understand that it is important to tell the international audience not only about the war but also to acquaint them with Ukrainian culture in general,'" Staranchuk added. On the first day of the Bologna Book Fair, a panel discussion titled "Maliopys: Ukrainian Comics in Wartime" took place. During the panel, the speakers spoke about the history of comics in Ukraine and discussed Mariam Nayem's cartoon, A Short History of a Long War. Anna Karnaukh's book Telegraf Magazine is presented at the book fair Photo: Tetiana Petrenko "Ukrainian comics are still a new phenomenon for the international audience. No one knows what to expect from them. We brought very different projects - children's, adult, historical and even scientific. So now we are looking at how they will be perceived. We are also actively promoting the name 'maliopys', explaining to foreigners what it means [comic strip] and how Ukrainian comics are different to show their uniqueness. After all, many countries have their own terms: bande dessinée, manga, fumetti. It's good that this name 'maliopys' has already been established in Ukraine, and now we are trying to bring it to an international level," explained Hanna Tkach, literary manager at the OVO literary agency. Tkach noted that the panellists also said that Ukrainians are aware of their trauma and work with it. "I can't say that Europeans are sceptical about Ukrainian narratives, but they often perceive them as being told through the prism of our trauma. That is, there is an opinion that our optics may be hypertrophied because of the events we have experienced - that we may be exaggerating or presenting events in overly dramatic tones. That is why it is important for us to talk about this with an international audience," the literary manager concluded. Many partners visited the Ukrainian stand during the first half day of the fair Photo: Tetiana Petrenko Reference: The Bologna Children's Book Fair was founded in 1964. Since then, the fair has become a creative hub for publishers, illustrators, designers, translators, librarians and other representatives of the publishing business. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Euronews
28-01-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Generative AI code contradicts copyright law, industry says
A diverse group of 15 different European rightsholder organisations has warned that the General-purpose AI Code of Practice (CoP) under the EU's AI rulebook contradicts copyright law, in a letter sent to European Commissioner for tech sovereignty, security and democracy Henna Virkkunen on Monday. The group includes News Media Europe, the Federation of European Publishers and the European Publishers Council. In September the European Commission tasked a group of independent experts to draft by April a Code of Practice on General Purpose Artificial Intelligence, which includes language models such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The code is intended to help companies comply with the AI Act's rules, including on transparency and copyright-related rules, systemic risk taxonomy, risk assessment, and mitigation measures. Despite defining the copyright policies that providers of general-purpose AI should implement, the draft text 'introduces elements that undercut EU copyright rules', the letter says. 'For instance, rather than establishing that providers must have lawful access to copyright content they use for training, [...] the draft suggests that AI providers may merely need to make 'reasonable and proportionate efforts' to ensure they have lawful access.' News Media Europe says in a separate statement that the CoP should be 'urgently reviewed to avoid its restrictive and selective interpretation of Copyright rules on rights reservations for text-and-data mining'. 'As a result, the CoP risks creating backdoor legislation and rights holders are still unable to verify if and how their works are used by [General Purpose Artificial Intelligence]. Considering the draft transparency template of the AI Office, the draft measures remain largely insufficient and even counterproductive to fulfil their stated purpose, as defined in the relevant articles and recitals of the AI Act,' News Media Europe said. The rules will have to apply to many sectors, from music to text, and therefore need to be abstract, officials involved in the drafting process told Euronews. A third draft is set to be published mid-February. The Commission can decide to formally approve the Code via an Implementing Act under the AI Act. The AI Act will fully enter into force in August of this year, but provisions on banned systems including facial recognition systems will start to apply as of 2 February. In the US, copyright issues and AI models have already led to legal complaints. Comedian and author Sarah Silverman in 2023 filed a lawsuit against Meta and OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, alleging that the companies illegally used her memoir to train their AI language models.
