Hi, It is not often that we can say this, but this news is truly hostoric! The real test remains to see how many countries will ratify the treaty. However, people who I have spoken with who were involved with it over several years thought that they would never achieve a text that was acceptable to both sides. Take care, Gerry Ellis If you don't know where you're going, How will you know when you get there? http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/26/miracle-in-marrakesh-historic-treaty-for- visually-impaired-agreed/ Miracle In Marrakesh: "Historic" Treaty For Visually Impaired Agreed Published on 26 June 2013 @ 3:26 am By Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Marrakesh, Morocco - The mood was one of celebration at the Marrakesh Palais des Congrès to greet the success of World Intellectual Property Organization negotiators in their attempt to produce a draft treaty text showing consensus. After a difficult start to the week, delegates achieved success and the corridors of the conference centre echoed with laughter and congratulations. Tears of joy were shed as most celebrated this as an historic agreement. Visually impaired people and civil society supporting them were ecstatic, some said overwhelmed. The final informal consolidation draft text <http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WIPO-Dipl-Conf-Ad opted-Draft-Treaty-June-2013.pdf> [pdf] was issued late at night, and all articles were adopted by a full room of delegates. The text is now off to the drafting committee which will ensure that all different language versions are consistent and compatible. WIPO members are meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, from 17-28 June to finalise a treaty on limitations and exceptions to copyright for blind and visually impaired persons, allowing them better cross-border access to books. For the visually impaired community, this is seen as nothing short of a miracle. After 10 days of hard negotiations, Dan Pescod, who leads the World Blind Union's European campaign for the treaty, confessing exhaustion, told Intellectual Property Watch before the text was available "part of me wants to see the text in front of me and part of me feels this is an historic day many years in the making." Maryanne Diamond, immediate past president of the World Blind Union, told Intellectual Property Watch that all issues that mattered for blind people had been addressed. "We are still in shock," she said, adding "this is the beginning of changing the world for blind people." Pablo Lecuona from the Latin American Blind Union said that for the past five years the blind community had been pushing for recognition of the problem of access to books for visually impaired people. "Now we have a treaty," he told Intellectual Property Watch, but said they have further work, which is the ratification and the implementation of this treaty so that it is an effective tool so that blind people can access more books. "I am overwhelmed. It was so hard and it should not have been so hard," said Jamie Love, a strong supporter of the treaty. "It took five years of hard work when it could have been much quicker but people really changed their mind when they met blind people. You could see a change in attitude in delegates," he said. "The European Union and the United States delegates found a way to push back on industry lobbying," he told Intellectual Property Watch, and even within industry, he added, there was a change of attitude, with some lobbyists pushing back hardliners. Jim Fruchterman, the head of Benetech, which runs Bookshare, a digital platform providing special format books for visually impaired people, said, "We are extremely excited about the treaty. We have the technology and we have the content, now we have a legal regime to make it possible for every person with print disabilities on the planet to get access to the books they need for education, employment, and social inclusion." Delegates Displaying Glee The level of enthusiasm was the same among delegates, whether from developed, developing or least-developed countries. Justin Hughes, a US delegate, told Intellectual Property Watch, "It was a pleasure to work with Brazil, and the European Union, and Mexico in the early days to try to get the first collaborative text together. Obviously it feels wonderful to see that text come to fruition." Another representative of Group B developed countries said that the text was balanced, as a European Union delegate said, "Everybody is very happy, very satisfied." A delegate of the African Group said, "It is a miracle." In a rare occurrence, all delegations, as well as civil society, celebrated in unison a treaty characterised as serving human rights. The enthusiasm was not as marked on the side of publishers. A source from the publishing industry told Intellectual Property Watch that the text was "pretty balanced" and that "there was something in it for everyone." Visibly the text is not to their full satisfaction, but most interviewed said they were happy for visually impaired people. WIPO Director General Francis Gurry told observers that the treaty had been driven by nongovernmental organisations and it was not only a treaty, but a good treaty. He extended "his profound thanks" for what he describes as "a truly historic result." "It is a great thing for WIPO, for intellectual property, for the multilateral system, but above all, for visually impaired persons," Gurry said. He was greeted by sustained applause. Participants widely praised the work of the WIPO secretariat. After a difficult beginning of the week when progress was very limited on issues on which delegations stood firm, relief first came last Saturday when agreement was reached on the three-step test and the so-called Berne gap (IPW, WIPO, 24 June 2013 <http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/24/wipo-negotiators-reach-breakthrough-on-3 -step-test-in-treaty-for-blind/> ). Agreement on Tough Issues Since then, there was mounting pressure to find agreement and the visually impaired representatives grew worried about the nature of the treaty. Among the issues remaining to be resolved as recently as yesterday were commercial availability, right of distribution to individuals, and right of translation. The issue of commercial availability, longstanding and pugnacious, was solved yesterday. Visually impaired people and developing countries wanted it out of the treaty, publishers and developed countries wanted it in. Finally, commercial availability still stands under Article 4 (National Law Limitations and Exceptions on Accessible Format Copies), but has disappeared from Article 5 (cross-border exchange of accessible format copies). The issue of the right of distribution to individuals was settled after "some additional safeguards and some additional information sharing mechanisms" were added to the text, according to Hughes. The text will come back to plenary to be reviewed and adopted, after having been through the drafting committee, on Thursday morning, said the WIPO secretariat, and countries will give their comments on the treaty at this time. Related Articles: * WIPO Members Inch Toward Visually Impaired Treaty <http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/10/19/minimal-progress-apparent-on-visually-im paired-treaty-text-at-wipo/> * WIPO Visually Impaired Treaty: Voices From Africa On Dire Situation <http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/12/16/wipo-visually-impaired-treaty-voices-fro m-africa-on-dire-situation/> * Visually Impaired, Civil Society, Industry Defend Their Stakes In Marrakesh <http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/20/visually-impaired-civil-society-industry -defend-their-stakes-in-marrakesh/> Expectations High As End Of Substantive Negotiations Near For Blind Treaty Negotiators <http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/25/expectations-high-as-end-of-substantive- negotiations-near-for-blind-treaty-negotiators/> Published on 25 June 2013 @ 6:05 pm By Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch Marrakesh, Morocco - Today is the day for World Intellectual Property Organization negotiators to find consensus on longstanding issues and come up with language that can satisfy all countries' concerns on a treaty, the first of its kind, that would provide copyright exceptions for visually impaired people to have wider access to books worldwide. In particular, the treaty aims to address the problem of cross-border exchange of special formal works, which is currently prevented, between certain countries, due to the lack of national legislation establishing exceptions to allow importation or exportation of books. The diplomatic conference convened to agree on the treaty is meeting from 17-28 June. Delegates working informally are supposed to have settled all remaining issues in order to propose them in the main Committee I, which is then tasked with putting language to the full membership of WIPO. Then the Drafting Committee, which was expected to start working today, can proceed to do the actual writing of the treaty, but is not expected to discuss any substantive issues. A new draft treaty text was issued on 25 June and is available here <http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WIPO-Dipl-Conf-dr aft-consollidated-text-25-June-2013.pdf> [pdf]. A list <http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/WIPO-Dipl-Conf-Li st-of-outstanding-issues-25-June2013.pdf> [pdf] of outstanding and resolved issues was published this morning, after late discussions last night. It shows difficulties stand in Article 4 (former Article C in the original draft treaty text <http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/diplconf/en/vip_dc/vip_dc_3_rev.pdf> [pdf]) (National Law Limitations and Exceptions on Accessible Format Copies), Article 5 (former Article D) (cross-border exchange of accessible format copies), and Article 6 (former Article E) (Importation of Accessible Format Copies). In Article 4, the right of translation was discussed this morning. The new consolidated version of the text shows several proposals on the matter. Chile and the United States have proposed language, which is the subject of option (2) of Article 4 (B), stating that the paragraph on the right of translation neither reduces nor extends the scope of applicability of the limitations and exceptions permitted under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Option (3) contains a proposal from the African Group and India, an "agreed statement" from Mexico, and agreed statement language from the United States. The African Group/India proposal refers to general provisions in the treaty on exceptions and limitations (Articles 10, 11 and 12). Mexico's agreed statement provides that the right of translation refers to the translation made at the request of an authorised entity as long as the work does not already exist in those languages in an accessible format. The agreed statement of the US says that an authorised entity "ordinarily" has no need to translate into a language when a translation in that language can be obtained commercially, on reasonable terms. According to several sources, the issue of the right of translation is a political issue, to which a solution should be found. Commercial Availability Commercial availability appears both in Article 4 and in Article 5. It is still a prickly issue, one with the potential to create problems for facilitators until the last minute, according to sources. A source from the African Group told Intellectual Property Watch that this could prove to be a blocking issue (IPW, WIPO, 25 June 2013 <http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/25/new-draft-text-shows-progress-on-wipo-tr eaty-on-books-for-the-print-disabled/> ). Several sources from the international publishing industry told Intellectual Property Watch that it is unclear why the right of translation should be included and thus provide an exception to visually impaired people while sighted people do not benefit from the same exception. Also, they said, the right of translation should perhaps be taken under national development policies, in the context, for example, of formerly colonised countries so that they could be helped to translate works in the original language(s) of the countries. Resolved Issues The list issued this morning also presented a list of resolved issues, in particular the 10th provision of the preamble referring to the three-step test, an agreed statement on audio books in Article 2 (former Article A). The agreed statement appears in a footnote, and includes audio books. The resolved issues appear to still include an amount of bracketed text, with agreement on some language, such as choosing between "should" and "shall". In Article 12 (formerly under the heading 'Articles') mention is made of the special needs of least-developed countries and their international rights and obligations. According to a delegate from Group B (developed countries), progress has been achieved this morning on the right of translation and the issue of commercial availability was also closer to resolution. On both issues, he told Intellectual Property Watch "things are moving forward." He said delegates were expecting to come back to Committee I today to present the progress on remaining issues.
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