[A2k] Views on the outcome of WIPO SCCR 18: Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay Treaty for Reading Disabled Persons

Tue Jun 23 11:53:15 2009

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/06/22/views-sccr-18/

Views on the outcome of WIPO SCCR 18: Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay
Treaty for Reading Disabled Persons

By thiru, on June 22nd, 2009

On Friday, May 29, the 18th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on
Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) agreed to consider a proposal
submitted by the governments of Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay Relating
to Limitations and Exceptions on a Treaty for Reading Disabled Persons
at its next meeting in November 2009 (19th Session). KEI has collated
views on the outcome of the 18th SCCR from the following countries and
NGOs.

Views on the outcome of WIPO SCCR 18: Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay
Treaty for Reading Disabled Persons

Carolina Belmar, Head Intellectual Property Department, General
Directorate for International Economic Relations

Ministry of Foreign Affairs =96 Chile

    =93The Chilean Government is satisfied with the results of the 18th
SCCR. The agreed conclusions reflect what seems to be a balanced
agenda, where limitations and exceptions are given an appropriate
level of importance. In particular various concrete steps were agreed
to be developed at the inter-sessional level. However, Chile regrets
that a GRULAC proposal to devote one day of the next SCCR for an
informative session for visually impaired persons (VIP) and libraries
was not approved by other members before reaching the plenary session.
In our opinion this proposal was in line with a broader discussion on
L&E within WIPO=94.

Chris Friend, Chair WBU Global Right to Read Campaign, World Blind Union

    =93Unfortunately the Rights Holders want their cake and eat it.
Having voluntarily suspended their own economic interests in their
rights by deciding not to produce accessible products for the visually
impaired reading community, they then lobby Governments to try and
prevent the community from securing Copyright Exceptions which would
permit the cross border exchange and sharing of current collections of
hundreds of thousands of accessible books between same language groups
of VI readers around the world.

    Thankfully Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay Delegations tabled at SCCR
18 the Draft Treaty Proposal put forward by WBU and this received good
support from many developing country Delegations whose VI communities
seek this equality and justice. WBU believes that the Treaty is an
essential component of a twin-track approach to finalising an
equitable and balanced solution and an end to the Book Famine. The WBU
is seeking convergence with the Publishers on a number of operational
issues, but the Treaty will further guarantee their right of access
especially on the cross-border issue.=94

Teresa Hackett

Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL.net)

    A copyright treaty proposal for reading-disabled people, the first
ever in favour of a user community. Focussed debate and many
constructive contributions. Conclusions that enable discussion on all
exceptions and limitations to continue. The sun was shining brightly
outside. It was a historic week at WIPO.

Embajador Mauricio Montalvo (Ambassador Maurcio Montalvo),

Representante Permanente del Ecuador ante las Naciones Unidas =96
Ginebra Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations,
(Geneva)

        * Durante el SCCR/18, la OMPI dio un paso muy saludable al
abordar temas de Derechos Humanos y Propiedad Intelectual.

        * En el SCCR/18 se mostr=F3 la cara humana de la propiedad
intelectual.

        * La propuesta de Ecuador, Brasil y Paraguay busca que la
propiedad intelectual vaya en beneficio de las personas con
discapacidad para la lectura, en lugar de que aquella constituya un
obst=E1culo m=E1s en sus vidas. Aspiramos adem=E1s que este beneficio se
extienda en el futuro a personas con otro tipo de discapacidad.

Dan Pescod, Campaigns Manager, Europe,International and Accessibility

Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)

    =93The WIPO-Commissioned Sullivan Study showed that there is a legal
barrier where transfer of accessible works across borders is
concerned, and that relatively few countries have exceptions in their
national laws for reading disabled people. Both factors hinder our
work in producing and sharing accessible books for print disabled
people.

    The solution we have identified is to remove these barriers via a
WIPO treaty. Opponents say we should not try to change copyright rules
to allow us to do the job better. Rather, we should talk to rights
holders

    and hope that this leads to them making their works accessible.
But why can we not do both? I was delighted that Brazil,Ecuador and
Paraguay formally made a proposal for a treaty on access for visually
impaired and reading disabled people, and that this gathered such wide
support from the Committee. We=92ll certainly work hard to ensure that
this progresses in the second half of 2009.=94

Manon Ress, Information Society Projects, Knowledge Ecology
International

    We expected the Obama Administration to be more supportive of a
treaty to address the cross-border sharing of accessible works. The
United States actually spent more time on this issue than other =91Group
B=92 countries, and was well aware of all of the important reasons for a
new global instrument: The legal uncertainly over cross-border sharing
of works, the very limited role of voluntary licensing of works, the
recent disabling of text to speech by all Random House owned ebooks,
the enormous inefficiencies of making duplicative accessible format
versions of works, and the paucity of works available to reading
disabled persons, particularly in developing countries, or in foreign
languages.

    The US associated itself with the Group B position that discussion
of *any* instrument dealing with cross border issues was =93premature.=94
The conversation goes back at least to 1981 at WIPO, and has been
raised every year since 2002 in the SCCR. It is not =93premature=94 but
rather =93overdue=94 to consider concrete proposals to overcome the
barriers to sharing accessible works across borders.

    This was a human rights issue, and the U.S. government was on the
wrong side. The US government should have co-sponsored the treaty
proposal. Instead it practically read from the publishing industry=92s
talking points.

Dr. Alfredo Scafati, President =96 Copyright Council, Ministry of
Education and Culture, Uruguay.

SPANISH

    =93Las conclusiones del SCCR reflejan el compromiso de un gran
n=FAmero de Estados por encontrar una soluci=F3n a la problem=E1tica que
afecta a los discapacitados visuales, por una falta de armonizaci=F3n
internacional en el =E1mbito de las excepciones al derecho de autor.
Cuesti=F3n que es de gran importancia para el Consejo de Derechos de
autor de Uruguay a la luz de nuestro compromiso con los derechos
humanos de todas las personas, hombres, mujeres, ni=F1as, ni=F1os y jovenes=
.

ENGLISH

    =93The conclusions of the SCCR reflect the commitment of many States
to find a solution to the problems affecting the visually impaired by
a lack of international harmonization in the field of copyright
exceptions. This topic is very important to the Copyright Council of
Uruguay, by our commitment to human rights of all people, men, women
and children.=94

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org

Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997