The copyright issue

 Introduction

Blind and partially sighted people are often denied the fundamental "Right to Read". In today's world, full participation in education, employment, culture and the general life of society can only be achieved if one is able to read the same material as others, at the same time and at no additional cost.

Yet the great majority of publications remain unavailable in large print, audio, braille or any other format accessible to blind or partially sighted people.

We are all entitled to education, training and the necessary assistive technology, but these alone will not open all the World's written riches to us.

 

The Right to Read

The rights set out in Articles 19 and 27(i) of the United Nations Universal Declaration on human rights :

"Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 27 (i)
Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits."

can only be realised through full and equitable access to written and graphical information.

The same principles are echoed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The UN International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities has been completed and has also been ratified by a number of countries. Article 30.3 refers specifically to copyright, while the broader issue of access to information crops up in several places.
 

 

What we do

Along with our parent body, the World Blind Union, we work to remove all barriers to our right to read, whether these barriers are legal, technological or economic.

The EBU Copyright and Publishing Working Group seeks to influence legislators and rights holders to this end.


Copyright

Copyright, when mis-used, can pose a serious barrier to blind and partially sighted people wishing to access information, as permission to reproduce in accessible formats can be delayed or denied.

New forms of copy protection and digital rights management compound this problem.


Partnership in publishing

Digital technology offers us the opportunity to use the same source files to create a range of formats. This means there is enormous potential for the integration of "mainstream" and "specialist" publishing. This would allow new business models which would lead to:

- more titles becoming available ;
- publication in accessible formats at or close to the date of original publication ;
- the prospect of a revenue stream for the author and publisher.

EBU (alongside with the Federation of European Publishers , academics and accessible format producers) has supported the work of the now completed EUAIN project,


We have held discussions with the Copyright and Knowledge-Based Economy Unit of DG Internal Market in the European Commission. The Commission has published two studies on copyright regulation and legislation within the EU, both overseen by Professor Bernt Hugenholtz at Amsterdam University: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/studies/infosoc-study_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/studies/etd2000b53001e69_en.pdf
The study commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organisation on the problems which currently prevent the free transfer from one country to another of material made accessible under national copyright exceptions was completed and published in February of this year. http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=75696 

 
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