The organisations representing the visually impaired will soon no longer have to obtain a special authorisation for publishing printed content in an accessible format.
On Tuesday evening 10 May, representatives from the Parliament, Council and Commission managed to reach an agreement on the modalities for applying the Marrakesh Treaty (see EUROPE 11784).
The compromise still needs to be officially confirmed by the co-legislators. It focuses on the introduction of a copyright exception for content for the visually impaired (directive) and the exchange of these copies with third countries (regulation).
These two texts define the modalities for implementing the Marrakesh Treaty. The latter was adopted on 23 June 2016, under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO and seeks to facilitate the access of the blind and visually impaired to a broader choice of books published in adapted formats such as braille, large lettering or audio digital recordings.
The agreement concluded on 10 May settled the difficult question of exceptions to exceptions (the possibility of member states limiting copyright exceptions for the visually impaired in certain cases). It allows the member states that so wish to introduce limited financial compensation to publishers whose content is reproduced in accessible formats.
Nonetheless, the agreement does not retain the idea of a commercial availability clause according to which, the organisations representing the visually impaired or libraries would have to verify whether a book is already available on the market before being able to reproduce it in an accessible format. These derogations were called for by the Council but opposed by the Parliament and Commission.
Christian Cardona, the Maltese Minister for the Economy, explained, “The long-awaited accession of the EU to the Marrakesh Treaty is set to become a reality. This is of huge importance since it ensures a basic human right to over 30 million visually impaired people across the EU, and improves the accessibility of books in developing countries”. Rapporteur, Max Andersson (Greens/EFA, Sweden), added, “it is important that the ratification process can start as soon as possible, so that the EU can join the rest of the countries that have already ratified the Marrakech treaty”.
The Marrakesh Treaty entered into force at an international level in September 2016 and has already been ratified by around 30 countries.
The European Blind Union (EBU) has been very much involved in this dossier and enthusiastically welcomed the absence of an availability clause. On the other hand, it did regret the fact that the member states could introduce a demand for financial compensation, as requested by “Germany and other governments under the influence of the publishers’ lobby”. It added that, “If these additional payments or “tax on accessible books for the blind” are applied widely by EU member states, the positive impact of access to culture and education of millions of blind people could be seriously obstructed”.
Once Parliament and the Council have formally endorsed this compromise, the provisions in the directive can be adopted in national legislation in each member state within a maximum time frame of 12 months. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)