Landmark treaty opens doors for the visually impaired

• Author: Catherine Jewell
• Position: Communications Division, WIPO
• Pages: 2-4

p. 2 2013 | 4

LANDMARK TREATY

opens doors for the

visually impaired By Catherine Jewell,

Communications Division, WIPO

In a move widely heralded a s a triumph for multilateralism, WIPO’s member states

recently concluded a la ndmark agreement that will boost access to literature, enter-

tainment and learni ng for blind, visually impai red and print disabled p eople around

the world.

After ve years of intense negotiations, on J une 27, 2013, WIPO’s 186 membe r states

adopted the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Publishe d Works for Persons

Who Are Blind, Visually Im paired or Otherwise Print Disab led at a Diplomatic Confer-

ence hosted by the Kingdom of Moroc co. W hy wa s this historic treaty neede d and

how will it help improve access to publ ished works by blind, visually i mpaired and

print disabled people around the world?

INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT: A BALANCING ACT

Since the rst international c opyright treaty, the Berne Convention on th e Protec-

tion of Literary and Ar tistic Works, was concluded in 1886, internationa l copyright

law has recognized the need to bal ance the rights of authors of creative works and

special provisions (k nown as “limitations and exceptions”) that are in the public inter-

est. The Berne Convention and subsequent copyright treaties include these special

provisions that allow for some use s of copyrighted material withou t authorization

from the rightholder. The denition of the “spe cial cases” to which these provis ions

apply is left to national gover nments, the only caveat being that th e reproduction

of the works produced under the m “does not conict with a normal exp loitation of

the work and does not unreaso nably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.”

In practice the copyright limi tations and exceptions containe d in national laws vary

widely. A study undertaken by WIPO in 20 06 indicated that just 57 countrie s had

special provisions for vis ually impaired perso ns in their copyright laws. Becau se

copyright law is territorial, where such special provisions exist in national law they

do not cover the import or expor t of works converted into accessible formats (such

as Braille, large print and di gitized audio versions of works), even between countries

with similar rules. Org anizations seeking to prod uce works in accessibl e formats

have to negotiate with rightholders to exchange sp ecial formats across borde rs or

pay to produce their own materials.

This complex situation explains why, according to the World Blind Union (WBU), of the

millions of books publishe d each year around the world less than 5 perce nt are avail-

able in formats accessible to visually impaired persons. It explains why, for example,

the Libraries of the Nationa l Organization of Spanish Blind People (ONCE) w hich has

more than 100,000 titles and its counterpar t in Argentina with over 50,000 wor ks

cannot share their titles wi th Latin America’s other 19 Spanish-speaking cou ntries.

According t o the World Blind Union

(WBU), of the mi llions of books pub lished

each year ar ound the world less tha n

5 percent are ava ilable in format s

accessible to v isually im paired persons .

e Marrak esh Treaty adopted by W IPO

member states i n June 2013 seeks to

allevi ate the book fami ne which excludes

million s of visually i mpaired people f rom

the bulk of the w orld’s published works .