Marrakesh VIP Treaty

Not to be confused with Marrakesh Agreement.
Marrakesh VIP Treaty
Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works to Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities
Type Multilateral
Signed 28 June 2013 (2013-06-28)
Location Marrakesh, Morocco
Condition Ratification of 20 states
Signatories 79
Parties 14[1]
Depositary World Intellectual Property Organization

The Marrakesh VIP Treaty (formally the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities) is a treaty adopted in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 28 June 2013.[2][3]

The treaty focuses on copyright exceptions to facilitate the creation of accessible versions of books and other copyrighted works. It sets a norm for countries ratifying the treaty to have a domestic copyright exception covering these activities, and allowing for the import and export of such materials. The full text of the treaty is available on the WIPO website.[4]

Fifty-one countries signed the treaty as of the close of the diplomatic conference in Marrakesh. The ratification of 20 states is needed for the treaty to go into effect.[5]

The treaty is the second international trade treaty associated with Marrakesh, the other being the Marrakesh Agreement which established the World Trade Organization in 1994.

India ratified the treaty on 24 July 2014 and was the first country to do so.[6] El Salvador, Mali, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay also ratified in 2014. In 2015, the treaty was ratified by Argentina, Paraguay, Singapore and Mexico.

On 27 March 2014, Israel passed legislation implementing the Marrakesh VIP Treaty. The Israeli implementing legislation is broader than the language of the treaty in a number of ways.[7]

As of 6 July 2014, 79 countries had signed the Treaty. In March 2015, an unusually harsh statement by the Council of the European Union accused the European Commission of delaying the adoption of the treaty by EU and called upon the Commission "to submit without delay the necessary legislative proposal".[8][9]

Dr Paul Harpur, law lecturer at the University of Queensland, as part of a series of papers on accessibility, has argued that the Marrakesh Treaty represents a paradigm shift in how the copyright world approaches accessibility and persons with print disabilities. Even though the Marrakesh Treaty is a positive step, Harpur and Suzor argue that more needs to be done to fully recognise persons with disabilities right to read as posited in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.[10][11][12][13]

References

  1. ↑ "Notifications: Marrakesh VIP Treaty". World Intellectual Property Organization. 11 December 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities". World Intellectual Property Organization. 28 June 2013.
  3. ↑ "Between the lines: Blind people defeat lobbyists in a tussle about copyright". The Economist. 20 July 2013.
  4. ↑ "Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works to Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities, adopted by the Diplomatic Conference" (PDF). World Intellectual Property Organization.
  5. ↑ "Stevie Wonder hails landmark WIPO treaty boosting access to books for blind and visually impaired persons". World Intellectual Property Organization. 28 June 2013.
  6. ↑ "India ratifies Marrakesh Treaty for visually impaired". The Hindu. 3 July 2014.
  7. ↑ "Israel Implements Marrakesh Treaty". Israel Technology law blog. 28 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Marrakesh in the EU: facing the excuses and delay tactics after Council statement". IP Policy Committee blog. TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue. 7 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled — Guidance for further work" (PDF). Council of the European Union.
  10. ↑ Paul Harpur and Rebecca Loudoun (2011). "The Barrier of the Written Word: Analysing Universities' Policies to Include Students with Print Disabilities and Calls for Reforms". Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 33 (2): 153–67. SSRN 1804628.
  11. ↑ Paul Harpur (2010). "Ensuring equality in education: How Australian laws are leaving students with print disabilities behind". Media and Arts Law Review 15 (1): 70–83. SSRN 1668096.
  12. ↑ Nic Suzor, Paul Harpur and Dylan Thampapillai (2008). "Digital Copyright and Disability Discrimination: From Braille Books to Bookshare". Media and Arts Law Review 13 (1): 1–17. SSRN 1138809.
  13. ↑ Paul Harpur and Nic Suzor (2013). "Copyright Protections and Disability Rights: Turning the Page to a New International Paradigm". University of New South Wales Law Journal 36 (3): 745–78. SSRN 2390468.
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