Ian Hudson - biography
Ian Hudson is Deputy Chief Executive of The Random House Group, one of the UK’s largest book publishing groups with subsidiary companies in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Ian is also Vice President and a Director of the PA and co-chair of the Publishers Association / Booksellers Association Liaison Group. He is a former chair of the Trade Publishers Council and a former member of the Government’s Information Age Partnership (IAP).Ian is a recognised authority on digital rights issues including implications for UK trade publishers of potential new digital rights regimes. He also chaired the PA/AAA/SoA working party on digital rights. As a former head of the PA Rights Group, Ian is well-versed in IPR issues, particularly territorial rights and the threats posed to the UK publishing industry from parallel importation.
During his time as a member of the government’s Information Age Partnership (chaired by Patricia Hewitt), Ian focused on the implications (and opportunities) of new digital developments for content providers. He also jointly led a delegation to the DTI regarding imposition of VAT on digital book content.