[Nfbf-l] Miracle In Marrakesh: "Historic" Treaty For Visually Impaired Agreed upon

[Alan Dicey]

PCB RE: IP Watch: Miracle In Marrakesh: "Historic" Treaty For Visually 
Impaired Agreed
Hello All,
This is   Advocacy  In Action! Hope we all can get inspired to become 
involved, make your voices heard  as this effort taking several years has 
produced an important  treaty that inpacts us all, readers or not, it is our 
future literacy that was at stake!
Now let's get us involved in  contacting our legislators on the Macy Act. As 
this message below  gives example, it was the presence and the voices of the 
blind delegates  that had an inpact, we have a chance once more to do so 
tomorrow!
Jule Ann
Jule Ann Lieberman
EZ2C Foundation
www.ez2cfoundation.org
From: George Holliday [mailto:george.holliday1 at verizon.net]
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 12:33 PM
To: George Holliday
Subject: IP Watch: Miracle In Marrakesh: "Historic" Treaty For Visually 
Impaired Agreed
IP Watch: Miracle In Marrakesh: "Historic" Treaty For Visually Impaired 
Agreed
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 [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.
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, who heads 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 
countries, 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 Berne Gap (IPW, WIPO, 
24 June 2013).
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, long-standing 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.org - your online plain text
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