Copyright and Publishing

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. EBU has a Commission on Culture and Education to follow up relevant issues.

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Plenary oral question & draft resolution on a book treaty for blind people: European Blind Union & European Dyslexia Association call to MEPs

On Wednesday 15th February at 21.00h the European Parliament Plenary will hear answers from the Commission and Council to an oral question, and consider a draft resolution [Oral question PETI : Commission - Blind persons' access to books O-000006/2012] arising from a petition from the European Blind Union and European Dyslexia Association. This briefing explains more, and asks for your support.

1. Book famine

Even in 2012, blind people and others living with a print disability such as those with dyslexia still have very limited access to books. Only some 5% of published books are ever made accessible (in braille, audio, large print etc) in richer countries, and less than 1% in poorer ones. This is a “book famine”.

2. An international treaty for blind people

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) makes treaties and other international laws on copyright.  Back in 2009 the World Blind Union, Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay proposed a WIPO treaty to help relieve the book famine.

Briefly, the new treaty would:

• Allow specialist organisations to make accessible copies of books in all signatory countries
• Make it legal to send accessible books across national borders
• Still respect copyright law: it is not an attack on publishers!
• Make more books available for blind people
  

3. The Parliament backs the treaty

In November 2010 over 100 MEPs from all groups signed a European Blind Union letter to Commissioner Barnier urging the Commission to back a binding WIPO book treaty. The Commission refused, instead pushing a non-binding WIPO “Joint Recommendation”.  Commissioner Barnier wrote to EBU on 16th December 2010 stating:

 “The European Union's policy in this respect currently comprises two planks of action. First, a proposed Joint Recommendation to be adopted by all WIPO members included the EU 27 Member states, which intends to tackle the issue of access to specially formatted books on a global basis. Secondly a recently approved Memorandum of Understanding which sets out the template for an EU solution.”

On May 12th, 2011 the plenary session of European Parliament adopted a report called “Unlocking the potential of the cultural and creative industries” (INI/2010/2156), that made clear its support for the international binding “Treaty for the visually impaired and other print disabled persons”.
Article 70 of the report:

 “Calls on the Commission to work actively and positively within the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to agree on a binding legal norm based on the treaty proposal drafted by the World Blind Union and tabled at WIPO in 2009”.

The Council and Commission ignored this call for a binding law, and insisted during the June 2011 WIPO meeting that they were negotiating towards a non-binding law. Then last September, the Parliament's Petitions Committee agreed with the European Blind Union and European Dyslexia Association's petition urging the EU to back the treaty. (Petition No.0924/2011). The Commission representatives at the Committee refused to back the treaty, talking up voluntary stakeholder groups and saying: “we do not have a mandate for a full Treaty" www.euroblind.org/news/nr/637. In fact, most countries in the world agree with the European Parliament in wanting the treaty approved at WIPO. Yet the EU Council and Commission still refuse to back it!


4. The Council and Commission are still blocking the a book treaty for blind people

At the November / December WIPO copyright negotiating committee meeting, the EU negotiators not only prevented agreement on a treaty, but actively tabled regressive amendments to the draft treaty when they attended the latest WIPO Copyright negotiating Committee, (SCCR) in November 2011.

For instance, the EU tabled an amendment to the draft law to the effect that the wording “copyright exceptions and limitations” should be replaced by “alternative measures”, removing the very essence of the new law. It tabled another deleting wording allowing blind people's organisations to make accessible books using the law without the authorization of copyright holders. Both of these amendments would defeat the object of the treaty and render it useless (whether binding or not). (See amendments 0.13 and C06 in the WIPO document at the link below)
http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=195021


5. Parliament Plenary: 21 MEPs tell Internal Market Commissioner Barnier it's time for the EU to back a binding WIPO book treaty for blind people. Barnier:  “I will ask Member States for a mandate for a binding treaty.”

On the evening of 15th February, in the European Parliament's plenary session, 21 MEPs from across the political divide spoke to urge Commissioner Barnier to end the EU's opposition to a binding WIPO book treaty. The oral question to the Commission arises from the European Blind Union and European Dyslexia Association's petitions submitted to the Parliament last September.

In his opening remarks, the Commissioner said that he was open to a binding treaty or non-binding guidelines. However, under pressure from all sides, Barnier said in his summing up:

 “I want to find, in the weeks to come, sufficient agreement among EU Member States to actively pursue the treaty path. I will meet governments, one by one, and in a forthcoming Council meeting, I will ask for this mandate” [for a binding treaty].

The Commissioner promised to report back to the Parliament on his progress. The European Blind Union warmly welcomes this new approach from the Commission, and looks forward to the Commissioner's words becoming actions. We will watch attentively and of course help the Commission where we can to achieve such a mandate from the Member States.
To underline its will on this matter, on 16th February the European Parliament voted unanimously in favour of a Resolution arising from our petition which calls on the Commission and Council to back a binding WIPO book treaty. See the link below for the Parliament's own news bulletin on this: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120216IPR38346/html/Binding-rules-to-ensure-blind-people%27s-access-to-books

FAQs

Q. How many books accessible to blind/ dyslexic people could be shared across borders if the treaty were agreed?

A. Hundreds of thousands more in a relatively short space of time. Take the example of ONCE – the Spanish National Blind organisation. It has over 100,000 accessible books in its library. Many Spanish-speaking Latin American countries have only a handful of accessible books. They cannot receive those ONCE holds in its collection because of copyright law barriers. With a worldwide binding treaty removing these barriers, ONCE could and would share these accessible titles with blind and partially sighted customers in Latin America. It would do so at no detriment to authors or publishers. At present blind people in Latin America are not able to buy these books, and so their provision on a non-profit basis would not harm the financial interest of authors or publishers. It would of course increase the number of readers for the books in question, which would benefit authors.

Q. The Council and Commission say they are working actively to achieve agreement at WIPO. Is this not the case?

A. They have been working actively at WIPO to ensure that any agreement is for weak, non-binding “soft law” guidelines and not a binding, effective WIPO treaty. For instance, in November 2011 at WIPO the EU tabled amendments to the draft law that would have rendered it useless. This contrasts with the EU's unambiguous support for binding treaties at WIPO for other matters such as its support last year for a treaty on the protection of audiovisual performances. Last June the EU did work with other countries to agree a workable draft text for a new law, but insisted that it be the basis of a non-binding law. Then, in November, the EU tabled amendments to that text which would render the new law ineffective. (As explained at section 4 above).

Q. The Commission sponsored an “EU Stakeholder Dialogue” which led to the signing of a “Memorandum of Understanding” in 2010 between publishers and blind people's organisations. Surely this is the solution- not a new law?

A. The European Blind Union suspended its involvement in this “dialogue” back in February 2011, due to the complex and punitive licenses the publishers were proposing, and also due to the “spin” publishers put on our participation in the “Dialogue”. Publishers and the Commission claimed that the dialogue could remove the need for a new legally binding treaty. The fact is we need a law to underpin these voluntary and partial agreements. A WIPO treaty would give blind people's organisations the right to share books across national borders – and not just in the EU but with non-EU countries which speak the same language. A WIPO treaty would apply to ALL books- not just those publishers choose to make available via licenses.

Listen to the inerview (in French) with Dan Pescod on the French national radio station RFI !

Members of the European Parliament support EBU call to Council and Commission for a WIPO treaty

• March 2012, Parliament Plenary: 21 MEPs tell Internal Market Commissioner Barnier it's time for the EU to back a binding WIPO book treaty for blind people. Barnier:  “I will ask Member States for a mandate for a binding treaty.”
  
• 16 February, MEPs tell Internal Market Commissioner Barnier it's time for the EU to back a binding WIPO book treaty for blind people. Press release in English
  
• As of 19 November 2010, 92 MEPs have signed our "Book Famine" letter of 3 November to the Council and Commission.
• Also read the outcome of the latest WIPO Copyright Committee meeting (8-13 November 2010).
• See also the work of the EBU Commission on Access to Information