Copyrights gøres mere smidige, så bøger og andre produktioner kan omformes til gavn for synshæmmede uden at det koster kassen – kan få betydning for 300 millioner i u-landene, som (måske) så får læst deres første bog.
MARRAKESH, 27 June 2013 (UN News Service): Negotiators at a United Nations-backed forum in Marocco adopted Thursday a landmark copyright treaty to enhance (udvide) access to books for millions of people who are blind or visually impaired (har nedsat syn).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 314 million blind and visually impaired persons in the world, 90 per cent of whom live in developing countries.
However, the World Blind Union estimates that of the million or so books published worldwide every year, less than five per cent are made available in formats accessible to visually impaired persons.
The treaty, approved after more than a week of intense debate among negotiators meeting under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is the culmination of years of work on improving access for the blind, visually impaired, and print-disabled persons to published works in formats such as Braille, large print text and audio books.
“This treaty is a victory for the blind, visually impaired and print disabled, but also for the multilateral system,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.
“With this treaty, the international community has demonstrated the capacity to tackle specific problems, and to agree a consensus solution,” he said, adding that the accord is balanced and “represents a very good arbitration of the diverse interests of the various stakeholders.”
The treaty, called the “Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or otherwise Print Disabled”, requires parties to adopt national law provisions that permit the reproduction, distribution and making available published works in accessible (læse-nemme) formats without having to seek permission from copyright holders in each case.
It also allows the exchange of accessible format works across borders by organizations that serve people who are blind, visually impaired, and print disabled.
This will increase the availability of accessible works as different countries will be able to each produce accessible versions of materials, which can then be shared with each other instead of duplicating efforts by adapting the same work.
The treaty also ensures authors and publishers that the system will not expose their published works to misuse or distribution to anyone other than the intended beneficiaries.
The treaty will enter into force after it has been ratified by 20 WIPO members that agree to be bound by its provisions.
