These are the notes I used for my oral presentation today at the WIPO SCCR 17 discussion on copyright limitations and exceptions. Jamie
KEI supports the proposal by Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua and Uruguay for a SCCR work program on L&E, including information gathering, analysis and norm setting.
KEI supports the proposal for a survey on L&E.
In terms of studies, KEI agrees with CI that WIPO should undertake studies related to distance education and innovative services to complete the other WIPO studies.
We agree with EFF, CI and the library NGOs (PK had not spoken yet) that the needs of the visually impaired and reading disabled populations should be given priority.
We offer some push back on the suggestion that voluntary actions alone can solve the problems of reading disabled populations.
At present, under the current system, people who are blind or visually impaired have access to a tiny fraction of copyrighted works. I have access to everything, and they have access to very little.
Bookshare is a leading U.S. non-profit publisher of works that are accessible to the reading disabled. They have approximately 41,000 titles, including 2 thousand that under voluntary licenses, 4 thousand works that are in the public domain, and 35,000 that are published under limitations and exceptions. Let me repeat that, 2 thousand titles under voluntary licenses, and 35 thousand under limitations and exceptions. Bookshare aggressively seeks voluntary licenses, in part because it can then export works to other countries. The 35,000 works made accessible under copyright limitations and exceptions cannot be exported to other countries. They cannot be exported to a blind person in Canada. They cannot be exported to a blind person in England. They cannot be exported to a blind person in Kenya or India.
Technology is improving, but it costs money for third parties to make works accessible to visually impaired persons. There are large potential economies of scale in distributing digital works in more than one country. The World Blind Union is asking WIPO to address this issue.
The WBU wants to have sufficient harmonization and the right to export and import works so that works made accessible anywhere can be made available to visually impaired persons anywhere. If WIPO does not act, visually impaired persons will continue to have access to very few works.
If France has a copy of a copyrighted work that is accessible to visually impaired persons, that work should be available to a visually impaired person in Belgium. Or French speaking Canada. Or Senegal, or Algeria. The work should be available to my mother-in-law, living in my home the United States, who is French, and toward the end of her life, became blind.
Today visually impaired persons, like others, migrate. And they work. People who want access to works in their home language, and people everywhere may need to read works in different languages. People living Japan, China, Germany, Mexico or Thailand may want to read a work in English, even though English is not the dominant domestic language. People who are blind or visually impaired are not different. If they are to contribute to society, they have to access to the same works that we do. The WIPO SCCR should consider at its next meeting the proposal for a WIPO Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and Other Disabled Persons. Thank you.