Ending the ‘book famine’: Visually impaired to gain access to published works

Pakistan to allow reprinting of copyright material.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan is all set to sign the Marrakesh Treaty that will alleviate the “book famine” for the visually impaired in the country, The Express Tribune has learnt.

If Islamabad goes ahead and signs this treaty, over 1.6 million visually impaired and blind Pakistanis will have access to published material and books in libraries across the globe.

The Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO), law ministry and the foreign affairs ministry jointly will make necessary arrangements for the signing and ratification of this treaty, according to officials.

Pakistan started work on this project after the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Marrakesh, Morocco, adopted an international copyright treaty in June this year. It was adopted after WIPO and Unesco looked for a solution, for three decades, to the harsh reality of blind people having access to only one to five per cent of published works.



Some five dozen countries signed the treaty amid the loud applause of the plenary. “Marrakesh Treaty seeks to alleviate the book famine which excludes millions of visually impaired and blind persons from access to the bulk of the world’s published works,” said Majid Bashir, president of the Center for Rule of Law.

More than 314 million people in the world are blind or have impaired vision. However, only 60 countries have limitations and exceptions in their copyright laws that make special provisions for large print and digitised audio versions of copyrighted texts or Braille – a tactile writing system with raised dots – as a mode of acquiring knowledge.

Foreign Office spokesperson Aizaz Chaudhry, who could not confirm whether Pakistan is a signatory to this treaty or not, told The Express Tribune that some 600 delegates representing 186 members joined the debate in June that led to the adoption of the treaty.

NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said it is our collective duty to create a conducive atmosphere for the blind and need to take steps for their integration as productive members of society.

“We really appreciate the white cane as the symbol of defiance against disabilities and a proclamation that no disability is too great to conquer human will,” he said.  Judge Majid further said that instead of multiple countries producing accessible copies of the same work, each country will be able to produce different works in an accessible format which can then be shared with other countries. The treaty, Majid said, allows the waiver of copyright restrictions in order for books to be available in formats such as Braille, large print text and audio books.

Luckily, Pakistan is a member of the Berne Convention, the first international copyright treaty  on the protection of literary and artistic works, which recognises the need to balance the rights of authors of creative works  and special provisions that are in the public interest.

Pakistan, under its Intellectual Property Rights regime, has certain provisions of law in the Copyrights Ordinance 1962 to adopt these special provisions of the Marrakesh Treaty.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2013.