Custom Writing Service http://StudyHub.vip/A-Special-Assignment-Project-Under-The-

1. 1
Special Student Exercise on the Diplom atic
Conference for adoption of a Treaty on Lim itations
and Exceptions for Visually I m paired Persons /
Persons w ith Print Disabilities
Marrakesh, Morocco ( 1 7 -2 8 June 2 0 1 3 )
A special Assignment Project under the WIPO Academy DL202
Course on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property
Submitted to
Submitted By
Sanjeev Kumar Chaswal and Emil Stoyanov Edissonov
WIPO Academy, World Intellectual Property Organisation, Geneva,
Head Teacher: Teacher:
Ms. Irini Stamatoudi Ms. Shaista Keating

2. 2
CONTENTS I NDEX
1 . W hat are the key objectives of theTreaty
1 .1 . First key objectives
I . Mandatory lim itations
I I . Optional lim itations
I I I . Copyrighted w orks at stake
I V. Accessible form at copies
V. Beneficiary person
VI . Authorized entity
1 .1 .1 . Second key objectives
2 . I s it necessary do adopt a specific Treaty to address the needs of the
visually im paired persons/ persons w ith print disabilities? Describe the pros
and cons of the adoption of this Treaty?
2 .1 . National and regional provisions
2 .2 . Pros and cons of the Treaty
2 .2 .1. The m ain pros of the treatyTreaty
2 .2 .2 The m ain cons of the Treaty
3 . Do you think that com m ercial publishers selling their books online w ill be
affected by the possible adoption of this Treaty? How w ill these publishers
be affected?
3 .1 Am azon Kindle 2 versus Authors Guild
3 .2 Affect on the online Books
3 .3 Present econom ic scenario
3 .4 Affect on Piracy
4 . Do you think that the adoption of the Draft VI P Treaty w ill affect the
econom y of your country? I f yes, how w ill the econom y be affected?
4 .1 Encouragem ent to I nternational reciprocal Policies
4 .2 The duplication of w ork W astage of Resources
4 .3 Cross border sharing of accessible w orks
4 .4 I nternet a state less boundaries
4 .5 Profitability in Audio form at
4 .6 I m pact on I ndia
4 .7 I m pact on Spain
5 . W hat are your m ain conclusions and recom m endations regarding the Draft
VI P Treaty?
5 .1 . Conclusions
5 .2 . Recom m endations

3. 3
EXERCI SE ON THE DRAFT TREATY ON LI MI TATI ONS AND EXCEPTI ONS FOR
VI SUALLY I MPAI RED PERSONS/ PERSONS W I TH PRI NT DI SABI LI TI ES ( 2 0 1 3 )
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
1 . W hat are the key objectives of theTreaty?
The Treaty seeks fundam ental objectives of non-discrimination, equal opportunity,
access, and complete individual development, effective as well as inclusive
participation in society. The Treaty of Marrakesh truly balances human rights and
intellectual property rights.
The Treaty recognizes the obligation of right holders to make works accessible to
persons with visual impairments and to the print disabled, recognizes that though
countries have different limitations and exceptions to their copyright laws, a uniform
international framework is required to address the needs of this section of society in
order to harmonize the law on this point and to ensure cross-border exchange of
books in accessible formats.
The key objectives of the Treaty are two, namely,
a) To improve the access to copyrighted works such as books, texts and audio
books for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print
disabled (hereinafter, referred to together as “VIP persons”)1
; and
b) To promote the exchange across borders of accessible format works by
organizations that serve VIP persons.
1 .1 . First key objectives
I. Mandatory lim itations:
In order to manage the first key objective the Treaty provides for the contracting
states to introduce in their national copyright laws legal provisions that include
limitations or exceptions to the exclusive economic rights of the copyright holders
(Article 4(1)(a)).
Those exclusive rights are the right of reproduction, the right of distribution and the
right of public communication. That is to say, particular persons or organizations (see
details below) will be able to make and / or issue copies of a book to, or otherwise
make the book available to VIP persons without having to seek the permission of the
publisher and/ or author of such a book.
1 Visually impaired persons

4. 4
II. Optional lim itations:
The Treaty also sets forth an option for the contracting states to adopt a limitation or
exception to the right of public performance. This option will be left at the discretion
of each contacting state. Limitations other than those expressly established by the
treatyTreaty may also be provided by each contracting state taking into account its
economic situation, its social and cultural needs.
III. Copyrighted w orks at stake:
For the purposes of the Treaty, copyrighted works are literary and artistic works, in
the form of text, notation and / or related illustrations, including audio books (Article
2(a)).
IV. Accessible form at copies:
Furthermore, the copyrighted works must be in accessible format copies, that is,
copies in an alternative manner or form which gives a beneficiary person access to
the work, including permitting the person to have access as feasibly and comfortably
as a person without visual impairment or other print disability. The accessible format
copy is used exclusively by beneficiary persons and it must respect the integrity of
the original work, taking due consideration of the changes needed to make the work
accessible in the alternative format and of the accessibility needs of the beneficiary
persons (Article 2(b)).
V. Beneficiary person:
The persons that can benefit from the above-mentioned limitations are persons who,
regardless of any other disabilities, (a) are blind; (b) have a visual impairment or a
perceptual or reading disability which cannot be improved to give visual function
substantially equivalent to that of a person who has no such impairment or disability
and so is unable to read printed works to substantially the same degree as a person
without an impairment or disability; or (c) are otherwise unable, through physical
disability, to hold or manipulate a book or to focus or move the eyes to the extent
that would be normally acceptable for reading (Article 3).
VI. Authorized entity:
As stated above, the copyrighted works, say printed books, are to be converted into
accessible format copies so that VIP person can have an efficient access to such
books. The former shall not however be made by any persons. For this purpose, the
treatyTreaty requires the creation on a national scale of the so-called “authorized

5. 5
entity” which will be the body in charge of making and facilitating the accessible
format copies of the copyrighted works to the VIP persons.
The authorized entities include entities which are authorized or recognized by the
national government to provide education, instructional training, adaptive reading or
information access to beneficiary persons on a non-profit basis, as well as
government institutions or non-profit organizations that provide the same services to
beneficiary persons as one of its primary activities or institutional obligations (Article
2(c)).
1 .1 .1 . Second key objective:
1. For the purposes of its second main goal, the Treaty provides for a cross-border
exchange of accessible format copies, which includes importation of same without
the permission of the owners of the copyright.
2. It establishes that accessible format copies may be distributed or made available by
an authorized entity to a beneficiary person or an authorized entity in another
Contracting Party.
3. The other purpose of the Treaty is that national authorized entities can benefit from
the harmonization of the limitations or exceptions limitations to the exclusive
economic rights of the copyright holders, so that they may operate efficiently across
borders on an international scale.
4. The practical result from the aforementioned should be that different contracting
states will be able to make and share with each other accessible format copies of
different books.
5. This should in turn amount to an increase of the total number of accessible format
copies and, at the same time, to avoiding duplicity of efforts and costs.
2 . I s it necessary tdo adopt a specific Treaty to address the needs of the
visually im paired persons/ persons w ith print disabilities? Describe the pros
and cons of the adoption of this Treaty?
2 .1 . National and regional provisions:
a) Under current legal framework, it is left to national governments to define what
limitations and exceptions are permitted under their national copyright laws. These
laws tend to include limitations and exceptions to the exclusive rights of the
copyright holders to uses in certain circumstances, which are compatible with fair

6. 6
practices, primarily under the Berne Convention, e.g. fair use (USA), fair dealing
(UK) or private copy (Spain). But, it should be noted, generally, national copyright
laws do not provide for specific limitations or exceptions for the use of copyrighted
works for or by VIP persons.
b) This is why an adoption of a specific international Treaty that can
a) address the issue of the lack of access of the VIP persons to books,
b) impose mandatory exceptions and
c) harmonize same at an international level is necessary.
c) In the EU, for instance, EU law provides for the possibility of Member states adopting
national exceptions of the rights of reproduction and communication to the public for
the benefit of persons with disabilities (Article 5(3)(b) EU Copyright Directive
2001/ 29/ EC)2
. The fact that the said provision does not create an obligation for
Member states is another reason why the adoption of the treatyTreaty is necessary.
2 .2 . Pros and cons of the Treaty:
Though, many of country’s commercial and other national entities are going to
debate upon the positive as ell as negative aspects of this Treaty and are going to
intensively debate for years with regard to the necessity perhaps of concluded
Treaty.
It is no doubt that this Treaty is certainly going to forge lasting impression on
accessibility of reading material to blinds world wide but also going to create a sense
of social responsibility with in the author community, whose works in not available in
accessible formats thereby motivating them to provide their work accessible formats
after the conclusion of the Treaty, this will not significantly improve the accessibility
of the works in different formats VIP’s but will further improve overall image of the
copyright work.
In over all contexts, this Treaty will certainly ensures international harmonization of
limitations and exceptions between the countries to facilitate the global sharing of
knowledge resources through accessible formats and the other main aspect of the
Treaty is to facilitate the cross-border sharing of copyrighted works that for the
benefit of visually impaired.
The other positive aspect of this culminated Treaty, This Treaty text provides the
authorized entities shall be permitted, without the authorization of the copyright
rights holder, to make an accessible format copy of a work, obtain a work in
2
The Copyright Directive (officially the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of
certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, also known as the Information Society Directiv

7. 7
accessible format from another authorized entity, and supply those copies to a
beneficiary person (the visually impaired) by any means, including by non-
commercial lending or by electronic communication by wire or wireless means on a
non-profit basis, while it is also possible that making an accessible format copy of a
work is effectuated by the beneficiary himself or by another person acting on his
behalf, e.g. a caretaker, for the personal use of the beneficiary.3
This Treaty has tries to achieve a balance between the publisher’s right to invest in
accessible formats of works and the right of the visually impaired to have equal
access to knowledge through a variety of sources.
2 .2 .1 . The m ain pros of the Treaty can be listed as follow s:
a) Establishing specific limitations / exceptions for the use of copyrighted works for VIP
persons;
b) Harmonizing the limitations / exceptions for the use of copyrighted works for VIP
persons;
c) Providing the possibility of establishing further limitations / exceptions which
encourages the contracting states to develop them and go beyond the provisions of
the Treaty when the particular circumstances require so;
d) Promotion and encouragement of cross-border exchange of accessible copies;
e) Respect to the right of publishers and authors to perceive remuneration by providing
for the possibility of the limitations / exceptions being subject to remuneration;
f) Possibility for the poor counties to benefit from accessible copies already made in
other countries by way of the schemes for sharing such copies.
2 .2 .2 The m ain cons of the Treaty can be listed as follow s:
a) This treaty is not obligatory or binding precedent on all countries to sign and ratify;
the Treaty is a voluntary on the part of the country to sign and ratify.
b) This Treaty has failed to coordinate with other International Bodies, NISO4
, ANSI5
and International ISBN agency6
with regard to printed material.
c) This Treaty has further failed to incorporate or rope in International ISBN agency on
the distribution of the books and distribution standards for e-books and ISBN
assignment standards.
3
On copyright and rights of persons with disabilities: WIPO treatyTreaty for the blind By Tatiana Sinodinou, Department of Law, University of
Cyprushttp://kluwercopyrightblog.com/2013/04/19/on-copyright-and-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-wipo-treatyTreaty-for-the-blind/
4
NISO is where content publishers, libraries, and software developers turn for information industry standards that allow them to work together.
Through NISO, all of these communities are able to collaborate on mutually accepted standards — solutions that enhance their operations today and
form a foundation for the future. View a timeline of NISO's milestones since its inception in 1939.
5
The American National Standards Institute) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards
for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States
6
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique] numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering
(SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W. H. Smith and
others in 1965.

8. 8
d) This Treaty unlike an EU Regulation or Directive, the Treaty does not place
obligations on governments unless they (voluntarily) deposit their instruments of
ratification.
e) This Treaty does not have definite date of entry to bring the Treaty into force.
f) As pursuant to Article 18, it will enter into force three months after 20 eligible parties
referred to in Article 15 have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession
there is no mandatory provision deposit ratification and accession with stipulated
period of time.
g) There are many countries, which are yet to ratify Berne Convention and TRIPS
Agreement in their countries, so the ratification of this Treaty is doubtful.
h) This many clauses of this Treaty are considered to be inconsistent with basic
agreements, such as the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement, which do not
address at an international level the limitations and exceptions set forth in the
Treaty.
i) That some countries may not adhere to the Treaty is against the harmonization of
copyright law at international level sought by the Berne Convention.
j) The Treaty may thus create a precedent, which may not be adopted by all the
members of the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement.
3 . Do you think that com m ercial publishers selling their books online w ill be
affected by the possible adoption of this Treaty? How w ill these publishers
be affected?
3 .1 Am azon Kindle 2 versus Authors Guild :
Last decade had seen fastest technological developments, actually, which had
intensified the tug of war between the interests and user, at one hand publishers
resist adoption of broader exceptions terms as they feel, it would lead to massive
piracy and could be higher, at the same time imposing excessive technological
protection measures may significantly hamper the conversion to an accessible
format, as the conversion to accessible formats is an act of exploitation, which is
creates new user thus copyright holders have a right and interest to control.
In this context there is a US case of USA, where the Internet giant Amazon caves to
Authors Guild7
over Kindle's text-to-speech reading8
, the Authors Guild had objected
to the text-to-speech function on Amazon's Kindle 2, claiming that it infringed on
audio book copyright. Today, Amazon said that while the feature is legally sound,
they would be willing to disable text-to-speech on a title-by-title basis at the rights
holder's request9
though the Guardian's Books Blog pointed out that: Clearly the
7
The Authors Guild is a not-for-profit American organization of and for authors. It has around eight thousand members, among them published
authors, literary agents and attorneys who mainly deal in book publishing.
8 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/01/authors-guild-blocks-kindle-voice
9 http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/02/28/0127236/amazon-caves-on-kindle-2-text-to-speechPosted by Soul skill on Saturday February 28, 2009
@09:16AM from the unexpectedly-generous dept.

9. 9
Authors Guild wants to take a firm position early about the emerging technology, but
this campaign seems misguided. If it weren't, one might expect the first people to
side with the Authors Guild to be Amazon, since, as well as manufacturing the
Kindle, the company owns Audible, a download site which accounts for 95% of the
online audio-book market.10
The author Guild has opposed Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature, as author Guild has
felt that it encroached on audio books without compensating the actual copyright
holders, the Amazon had back down and has allowed authors and publishers
themselves to decide whether to activate the read-aloud feature on individual titles
or not but this move of the Amazon had prompted the disability groups to organized
themselves into a Reading Rights Coalition11
and since then have been demanding
full access to text-to-speech as it gives the visually impaired equal access to
electronic books.
3 .2 Affect on the online Books:
In principle, the Treaty may affect negatively the publishers of books as they may
see their sales reduced, especially in the case of audio books. The Publishers that
wish to distribute accessible formats such as audio books may see their sales down.
However, from another point of view, the publishers may be affected positively in the
sense that the authorized entities may need to purchase the books in order to make
the accessible copies. This will result in the publishers experiencing a rise in the sale
of printed books.
There is also the possibility of book publishers not being affected on the grounds that
their sales would not go down. This may be especially the case of the developing
countries where the big part of the population cannot afford purchasing books.
3 .3 Present econom ic scenario:
That in the present scenario the leap of the digital technique / e-books have been
damaging the economics of print media, as the transition from print to e-books do
not look as promising in the long run, as people have assumed nor have able to
make much impact but the audio books are a billion dollar market12
, the rights for
which are packaged separately and are far more valuable than e-book rights. Thus
10
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/01/authors-guild-blocks-kindle-voice
11
The Reading Rights Coalition, The coalition represents people who cannot read print includes the blind, people with dyslexia, people with
learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many others for whom the
addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 245,000 books,
12 How Amazon Became the King of Audio books Recorded books are now a billion -dollar business, which Amazon dominates perhaps like none
other. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/07/how-amazon-became-the-king-of-audiobooks/277836/

10. 10
audio market is such a big market that authors and user will certainly get benefit
from the digitalization of their knowledge work in accessible format.
The author or copyright holders through digital / internet can exploit the work in
many folds due to unmanageable reach of the internet across the globe much larger
then print exploitation with minimum expenditure as good text-to-speech is even
more powerful then the printed Braille text, as not only can blind and visually
impaired readers enjoy your books, even normal person may use it and certainly, it
is going to potentially have instant, automated audio books.
3 .4 Affect on Piracy:
Moreover, it may be argued that piracy would be discouraged only, if the accessible
format copies are made available to VIP persons for free or at nominal cost.
Otherwise, third parties may see themselves inclined to "compete" with the
authorized entities by way of distributing (cheaper) pirate copies to the public.
Taking into account that, in principle, no party is going to give reading material or
material in accessible format free but through internet the publisher can provide
audio format through the help of internet services providers, such as Amazon, google
on a discount price providing monthly membership, the charges may vary in
accordance to the region and other way is to provide student edition on cheaper
price to ward off piracy.
The most suitable and fair solution might be for the contracting states (developed
countries with powerful book publishing industries) to adapt national provision
according to which the limitations / exceptions set forth in the Treaty be subject to
remuneration. This measure will respect both book publishers and authors’ rights to
remuneration / royalties. Let us not forget that it is for governments to worry about
VIP persons having access to books, not for businesses.
4 . Do you think that the adoption of the Draft VI P Treaty w ill affect the
econom y of your country? I f yes, how w ill the econom y be affected?
4 .1 Encouragem ent to I nternational reciprocal Policies:
This Treaty will bring end to many past inconsistent reciprocal policies remained
between countries as due to lack of such type of International agreement made
impossible to share material between countries in accessible formats. Which had led
to continuance of barriers on sharing of works, there by only a small fraction of
published books, estimated to be not more than 5% to seven 7% of works 13
were
13
http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/news/Pages/JUne-17-Press-Release-for-WIPO-Book-Treaty.aspx

11. 11
made in accessible formats to visually impaired persons with print impairment of
developed countries.
It will further lead to more sharing, we have seen in the past that developed
countries have been sharing a fewer works in accessible formats with visually
impaired persons of developing economies. Statically this number is lower in the
poorest regions, where only 1% of books are available in accessible formats.
This Treat will become more effective and will show overall positive result only, when
all countries, who have signed and pledged ratification of this Treaty will sincerely
work on its implementation, thus only joint efforts of all countries, irrespective of
developed and developing countries can bring positive changes in life’s as well as
social acceptability of VIP, as visually impaired of the developing countries are yet
climb social and financial ladder, who have been ignored from main educational
stream for many years.
4 .2 The duplication of w ork W astage of Resources:
This Treaty will encourage the use of new technologies to improve the state of affairs
in relation to production and distribution of books in accessible formats. Due to non
availability of the Treaty, which had led to repeated duplication of books in accessible
formats in each country thereby wasting of money and resources, thus making
availability of accessible work a difficult proposition for the country with limited
resources and this has led to deprivation of access material that too separately in an
accessible format for a VIP community with fewer percentage, thus country with
limited financial resources always discouraged unnecessarily putting financial burden
on its economy. Now after conclusion of the Treaty, it will cast obligation on
developed countries to remove barriers to access works in accessible form.
This Treaty will foster technological cooperation and encourage developed countries
to play a pivotal role in making works accessible in audio, digital, electronic and e-
book forms reading material in plenty with minuscule costs to VIP of developing
countries. The developed countries may also bring newer digital technologies, book
publishing equipments for installation, which in turn spurt the sale of the genuine
books, thereby making them to churn out profits for commercial entities.
This Treaty will make developing countries to join path of development with positive
impact, thus churning a wheel of overall development and financial betterment for
every one and all. Thus this Treaty will foster cooperation in eradicating the Book
famine from the world scene.
4 .3 Cross border sharing of accessible w orks:

12. 12
This Treaty will encourage cross-border sharing of accessible formats that would
increase efficiency, as it will allow maximum utilisation of each other resources
thereby allowing fewer resources to be spent on the creation of new accessible
format of books and will further help in reducing unnecessary duplication of titles, it
will certainly lower financial burden of all. This cooperation format will work more
effectively, where the countries are having one common language.
This Treaty will certainly create positive affects in economy of the developing
countries, where there are dearth of resources to create accessible copies of
copyrighted works for their VIP people and for poor countries, where VIP live in
abduct poverty.
The concluded Treaty for the Blinds will unlock the large digital libraries of accessible
works that are now off limits due to outdated international copyright rules. This
concluded agreement will give a new hope for the millions of blind and visually
impaired persons of developing countries to expand their knowledge horizon as well
as expanded access of knowledge and culture.
This Treaty is going to create numerous avenues for exploitation of knowledge work
through accessible formats for the user as well as for the interest holders,
commercial entities including publishers of developed, developing countries.
In the long term, certainly, these exceptions of this Treaty is going to bring new
customers and newer markets for publishers, as a result of more print impaired
persons will be able to access the reading material in other accessible formats, there
by making them more educated and financially sufficient to buy more books in
accessible formats.
4 .4 I nternet a state less boundaries:
Every day, so much of technological advancement is taking place around the world
that every country is clamoring for bringing, adoption of newer technological
innovations in digital, electronic spheres. Today due to invasion of the internet and
other digital formats, the countries have enormous option, potential open before the
them to join as single world community, this technological advancement in the
Internet has led to creation of boundaries less countries and the world has become
one village thereby making every country economy inter woven with each other, thus
any positive of negative effect may one way or other affect the economy of other
country.
This Treaty will ultimately discourage individual efforts to convert a book into an
accessible format, when they can buy the accessible version easily, if publisher and
author or copyright holders shoulder social responsibility in providing knowledge

13. 13
through accessible format to marginalized community, though their social endeavour
may earn a little less then in comparison to the commercial gain but certainly they
are going to gain respectability and in the long run it will also help them in containing
piracy to the large extent.
4 .5 Profitability in Audio form at:
That in the present scenario the leap of the digital technique / e-books though may
be a damaging economics of print media to some extent and further the transition
from print to e-books do not seems to be as promising in the long run, as people
have assumed nor have able to make much impact but the audio books are a billion
dollar market and is going to increase its volume, the audio rights, which are
packaged separately and are going to be more valuable than e-book rights.
Thus audio market is going to be such a big market that authors and user will
certainly get benefit from the digitalization of their knowledge work in accessible
format. Even developed countries are going to reap benefits / profits by selling
these works to the deficient population thereby bringing over all positive effect all
around.
The author or copyright holders through digital / internet can exploit the audio work
in many folds due to boundaries less reach of the internet across the globe much
larger and faster with minimum expenditure then print exploitation, as good text-to-
speech is even more powerful then the printed Braille text as not only can blind and
visually impaired readers enjoy your books, even normal person may use it and
certainly it is going to potentially have instant, automated audio books.
4 .6 I m pact on I ndia:
As far as India is concerned, the impact of the Treaty will certainly bring positive
financial impact, as India has been for long actively participating in the world affairs
as newer internet / digital technological advancement India more closer to the
developed countries and is also effectively part of one village. Thus any positive and
negative effect will certainly effect vice versa but this treatyTreaty is boon for India
as in India only 1% of all books are available in accessible formats and it is stated
that 90 % of which live in developing countries and out of which 47 million14
of the
world’s visually impaired persons stay in India.
In order to tackle this deficit and the India has timely realized Amendment of the
Copyright Act, 2012. This amendment introduced S. 52 (1) (zb), which permits the
conversion of a work into any accessible format exclusively for the benefit of persons
14
http://spicyipindia.blogspot.in/2013/07/the-marrakesh-miracle-salient-features.html

14. 14
with disabilities. This amendment came before the Marrakesh Treaty and in all
probability would have been have been upheld up as a shining example at the
Marrakesh Conference.
4 .7 I m pact on Spain:
Finally, as regards Spain, it should be noted that there is no information to suggest
that the Treaty will have a noticeable impact on the Spanish economy. In Spain, in
2008 there were 70,000 blind persons15
, which may not be a considerable number
taking into consideration the total number of blind persons world-wide.
In Spain, printed books accessible for VIP persons have already been released16
. It is
a printed book that features a NFC (Near Field Communication) chip that can be read
by a smart phone which provides an audio version of the book. It should be noted
that it is a private initiative. This might be a suitable solution as both VIP persons
and persons with no visual disabilities may have access to books in the same copy.
5 . W hat are your m ain conclusions and recom m endations regarding the Draft
VI P Treaty?
5 .1 . Conclusions:
The circumstances in which the Treaty is passed are the following. According to the
World Blind Union, there are an estimated 285 million blind and partially sighted
persons worldwide17
. Currently, only 5% of all published books in the developed
countries and less than 1% in the developing countries are ever produced in
accessible formats18
.
In that context, the adoption of the Treaty is an important groundbreaking measure
towards VIP persons having access to culture and literature. This will be most noticed
in developing countries where, as seen above, less than 1% of published books are
available in accessible copies.
The Treaty may also be seen as a triumph over discrimination as many VIP persons
will be able to have access to the same books as people with no visual disabilities.
The cross-border exchange of accessible format copies should reduce costs, as the
authorized entities may collaborate in the sense that they may exchange the copies
they have made and avoid duplications in the making of new. This measure should
eliminate duplication and increase efficiency.
15http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/magazine/2008/434/1200737903.html
16http://andaluciainformacion.es/granada/307849/el-primer-libro-adaptado-para-invidentes-con-tecnologia-nfc-en-espana-tiene-sabor-granadino/
17http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/Pages/default.aspx
18http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/news/Pages/WBU-Statement-on-Marrakesh-TreatyTreaty.aspx

15. 15
It should also be noted that the Treaty states that it shall be a matter for national
law to determine whether the limitations or exceptions are subject to remuneration
{ Article (4) (5)} . This means that the Treaty respects the right to fair remuneration
of publishers and authors. It is important that the business and right holders also see
their interests taken into account, because their co-operation will be crucial for the
fulfillment of the objectives of the Treaty.
The cross-border exchange of accessible format copies as set forth by the Treaty is
an important step ahead in the cooperation on an international scale. In the
globalized world that we live in where copyright works can be shared in a small
fraction of time on the internet across continents, this cooperation is crucial. Not only
should this measure result in an increase of the total number of accessible format
copies but it should also imply an important reduction of costs. This is especially
important to third-world and developing counties where resources are scarce.
In the context of the aforesaid, it should be noted that many African countries as
well as India and Pakistan where English is the official or co-official language may
benefit from the works made available in accessible format copies by authorized
entities in the USA, UK or Australia.
Further, the notable achievement can be gauged from the fact that arrival of
consensus amongst the countries thus paved the way for culmination of this Treaty,
as it demonstrates that transparency in international policy making altogether can
bring wonders. Usually the Treaty convention of massive scales always does have its
own teething problems in maintaining workings as well as bringing various factions
to consensus solutions but due to detailed working of WIPO has given impetus in
culmination of this convention in to a success.
The final conclusion of the Treaty is with in satisfaction of all stakeholders as well as
of member states, which clearly proves that how a wide spectrum of interests can
forge their differences and come together in arriving consensus on draft of
international copyright policy that respects, protects as well as considers the rights
of all. This Treaty is a victory for all but especially for the blind, visually impaired,
and print disabled but also for the multilateral system said WIPO Director General
Francis Gurry. “The international community has demonstrated the capacity to tackle
specific problems, and to agree a consensus solution.”19
Still this Treaty still needs to be ratified by each of the member states in their
respective domestic legislative domain governed by each country and how copyright
industry lobby reacts for its domestic ratification, as this copyright lobby relentlessly
19
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2013/article_0017.html

16. 16
fought to delegitimize the Treaty, through over the years, they will still try to exert
their might in stalling ratification in their respective countries and if these lobbies are
able to succeed, this may create impediment in a way making this Treaty as effective
tool, thus in coming months we will have to see its outcome, in case of failure in
culminating ratification by individual countries than it is bound to create dent in
reputation of the world body as well as huge encum brance on the Treaty’s efficacy,
as many of famous and its accessible works actually originates from these developed
countries.
But from now next few m onths, we will have to closely watch out to see how this
Treaty bring effects between various stake holders including its whether it is
benefiting hundreds of millions of persons with print disability around the world. As
of Today all countries were supporting the Treaty are quietly optimistic of its positive
after effects.
This is a real team effort of all the stake holders including member states, who came
together with consensus within short period forking out their differences and whole
heartedly supported in the sake of hundreds of millions of persons with print
disability around the world, it is really worth to observe that there is a serious
attempt on the part of the world community to strike a balance between the interests
of copyright owners and the public at large. Hence for now onwards, we are sure that
the Copyright law should be used as a tool to foster development and inclusion and
should not perpetuate monopolies created by a minority segment.
5 .2 . Recom m endations:
The world body WIPO has to frame definite date of entry to bring the Treaty into
force, so the VIP’s can take benefit of this Treaty.
To make this Treaty more affective for the benefit of visually impaired persons, we
need to need to implement forge alliance between other International Bodies
involved with printed material and books as this Treaty has failed to coordinate with
other International Bodies, NISO, ANSI and International ISBN agency with regard to
printed material.
The WIPO has to involve ISBN20
as this Treaty did not rope in International ISBN
agency on the distribution of the books and distribution standards for e-books and
ISBN assignment standards.
20
ibid

17. 17
This Treaty is to be made like an EU Regulation or Directive, so it becomes obligatory
on the part of the countries on governments to deposit their instruments of
ratification.
Many clauses have to rework on this Treaty, as to remove inconsistency with basic
agreements, such as the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement, which do not
address at an international level the limitations and exceptions set forth in the
Treaty.
Furthermore, a unified database of all printed material and books, which may
includes e-book or accessible copies must be maintained to ward of piracy from its
roots. This database can be stored and managed by WIPO with the help of ISBN. The
said database should include at least the following information’s:
· the names of the books that have been made available in accessible format copies
· the location (either physical or on the internet) where the accessible format copies
can be found
· the name of the authorized entity that have made the accessible format copies, the
purpose of the database would be to facilitate the access to the accessible format
copies for both authorized entities and VIP persons.
____________________________________________________________________