[A2k] Editorial re WIPO treaty for the reading disabled persons (Sri Lanka Breaking News-Daily Mirror Online)

[Manon Ress]

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=3D5=
1397

Eye-opener for a more enlightened world

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is poised to
change the world. For the first time in its history, WIPO, the UN
agency that creates and administers patent, trademark and copyright
treaties, will consider the establishment of a Treaty that would
harmonize copyright exceptions to enable reading-disabled persons to
get access to the written word.

At the 17th session of WIPO's copyright committee in November last
year,World Blind Union (WBU) proposal titled =93WIPO Treaty for the
Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading-
Disabled Persons=94 was made available by the WIPO Secretariat.

Six months after the WBU first submitted its proposal; the governments
of Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay adopted the WBU text as their own and
formally tabled a Treaty for Reading-Disabled Persons May 25.  These
governments noted that the Treaty text =93presents possible ways and
means of facilitating and enhancing access to protected works for the
blind, visually impaired, and other reading disabled persons. Brazil,
Ecuador and Paraguay recognize the merit of dealing without delay, but
with careful deliberation, with limitations and exceptions that would
allow people with disabilities, such as the visually impaired, to
access, publish and distribute works that are accessible to them=94.

The main aim of the treaty is to allow cross-border import and export
of digital copies of books and other copyrighted works to persons who
are blind, visually impaired, dyslexic or have other reading
disabilities, using devices that present text as refreshable Braille,
computer generated text to speech or large type. These works, which
are expensive to make are typically created under national exceptions
to copyright law that are specifically written to benefit persons with
disabilities. According to the most recent WHO figures, 314 million
people live with visual impairment; 45 million of these are blind, of
whom 90 per cent live in low-income countries. The number of books
accessible to the reading disabled is small everywhere relative to
what =93sighted=94 persons can read, and in developing countries including
Sri Lanka such works are extremely rare.

At the 18th session of the WIPO copyright committee held in May 2009
in Geneva, every regional group in the developing world, especially
the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, expressed support
for advancing work on this proposal.

Lined up against the cause of reading disabled persons were the
industrialized countries including Australia, Canada, the European
Union, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and most surprisingly the
Vatican.  The rich country bloc argued that discussion of a Treaty for
Reading Disabled Persons was =93premature=94 and endeavoured to delay the
timely discussion of the Treaty proposal. This opposition was
instigated by the juggernauts of the publishing industry who oppose
any paradigm shift from business as usual.

Despite the odds, Brazil, Ecuador, and Paraguay, in concert with many
countries of the Global South and supported by range of actors
including the World Blind Union, Bookshare, the Daisy Consortium,
Knowledge Ecology International, International Federation of Library
Associations (IFLA) and others succeeded in placing the Treaty for
Reading Disabled Persons on the agenda of the next WIPO SCCR meeting
in November. Sri Lanka, as group coordinator of the Asian Group at
WIPO, should lend its unequivocal support to the Treaty proposal of
Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay. This Treaty proposal marks the first
time substantive negotiations may take place at WIPO to reform the
architecture of the international copyright system to address the
needs of the blind, visually and reading disabled persons. Sri Lanka,
as bloc leader of the Asian Group, a prestigious responsibility which
involves coordinating the positions of a group of countries including
Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates,
Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Singapore, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Thailand and Malaysia, should lend its name and co-sponsor the
initiative of Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay. It is a moral imperative.