Marrakesh Treaty

India, on June 30, 2014, became the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled.Marrakesh Treaty is going to create a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions for the benefit of the blind, visually impaired and otherwise print disabled (VIPs). It addresses the ‘book famine’ by requiring its contracting parties to adopt national law provisions that permit the reproduction, distribution and making available of published works in accessible formats - such as Braille - to VIPs and to permit exchange of these works across borders by organizations that serve those beneficiaries.

Goals of the Treaty

The treaty is aimed to end the book famine faced by people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.Currently only some 1-7 % of the world’s published books ever make it into accessible formats. This is partly due to access barriers in copyright law. It does that in two main ways.

1. Countries which ratify the treaty must ensure their laws allow blind people and their organisations to make accessible format books without the need to ask permission first from the holder of copyright, either author or publisher.
2. Ratifying countries must allow for import and export of accessible versions of books and other copyrighted works, again without copyright holder permission.This will help to avoid the duplication of transcription efforts in different countries.

Major Provisions in the Treaty

• Respect for copyright holders’ interests: Article 2 of the Treaty makes it clear that accessible books sent under its provisions should be solely for the use of ‘beneficiary persons’. It asks also that ‘authorised entities’ take ‘due care’ when handling these books, and that they discourage the reproduction and distribution of unauthorised copies.
• Commercial availability of accessible format books: Treaty requires that one can only send or receive books in accessible formats where they were not deemed to already be available commercially in that format. There is no commercial availability requirement for exporters of accessible books.
• The Treaty across the world: With a concerted effort for widespread ratification and implementation, it should both promote the domestic production of accessible materials in each country, as well as provide access to books produced elsewhere.This will be important for books in languages that cross-national boundaries, languages like English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Bangla/Bengali, Indonesian, Swahili and so on.