These notes cover the content of a talk with the above title given to the Conference on The Use of Telematics in the Education of Visually Handicapped People, Paris, 2nd June, 1998. No formal paper was prepared on this occasion.
[ OUTLINE ]
[ PREAMBLE ]
[ ELECTRONIC MEDIA ]
[ NEW CONTEXTS FOR COPYRIGHT CONFLICTS ]
[ PAYMENT ]
[ CURRENT EUROPENA LEGISLATION ]
[ CONCLUSION ]
Theses notes:
Report on an international survey conducted by RNIB in 1997, on copyright laws and access to information by visually impaired people.
Highlight aspects of legislation affecting electronic formats.
Examine the new contexts in which copyright conflicts may arise in the Information Society.
Briefly consider the question of pricing
Mention current European Union legislation.
Ask for the views and experiences of those involved in accessing material for visually impaired people
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We must respecting both sets of rights: those of the owners of intellectual property for a fair return for their work, and control over significant modifications to that work; and the basic human right of visually impaired and other print disabled people to read the same material as their fellow citizens.
INTERNATIONAL SURVEY
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), the major agency for blind and partially sighted people in the United Kingdom, commissioned me last year to conduct an international survey on copyright law as it affected access to material by visually impaired people. Entitled "Copyright Law and the Rights of Blind People", it was published in October 1997. *
It looked at the situation in the member states of the European Union (EU), Norway, and five major English-speaking countries: Canada, the Unites States, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Until recently, copyright law disregarded the needs of visually impaired people. Legal alternative format versions of any material could only be made under licence, that is to say with the express permission of the rightsholder. This is still the case in ten of the fifteen EU states.
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In some countries, however, changes in the law have been made within the past three or four years. Developments can be categorised as follows:-
Non-infringement
Legislation in the USA, Canada and New Zealand stipulates that the production of alternative format versions for print disabled people does not constitute an infringement of copyright if conducted on a non-commercial basis. As it does not constitute an infringement, no permission, notification, or payment is required.
All three legs refer to the format being something special for print disabled people, but both the wording and, more importantly, the interpretation is different in each country. For example, large print is excluded from these provisions in Canada, but not in New Zealand.
Whatever the wording, the underlying spirit of each of these regimes is not to threaten commercial markets.
Compulsory licences
In Scandinavia, laws permit the production of braille, and sometimes large print, in much the same way as described above, i.e. by anyone, without the need for permission or payment, on a non-commercial basis. Audio, though, is treated differently. The creation of audio versions of books for print disabled people is limited to named organisations, and often (though not in every case), accompanied by the payment of substantial fees. Thus, rightsowners cannot prevent material from being made available to visually impaired people, but they are financially recompensed.
Exemptions.
Spanish law simply excludes work for visually impaired people from copyright laws. So, apparently, does Portuguese law..
Permission
In the rest of the EU, and no doubt in many other countries, permission is still needed for everything.
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Amendments to legislation in Denmark, Finland and Norway (and soon also in Sweden) allow non-profit organisations to make electronic versions for print disabled people, under the same terms as braille. This is perhaps surprising, implying that they see no risk to commercial markets, whereas the regime for audio is very sensitive to such risks.
To ensure that circulation is restricted to those for whom the material is intended, agencies use devices such as passwords, restricted access to a bulletin board or server, or notices at the start of files.
US organisations such as Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic anticipate that encryption and passwords will suffice to ensure that the growing traffic in electronic versions of texts for the benefit of visually impaired people will not fall foul of the law’s insistence on "special" formats.
All the laws mentioned above are restricted to their own territory, taking no account of the cross-border nature of electronic exchanges.
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The new age of electronics does not change the fundamental principles of copyright or of the right of equitable access for print disabled people, it simply gives rise to new contexts in which conflicts can arise.
Below I briefly examine some of these new contexts.
Implications for producers
Transient files are created as part of the process of preparing a document for braille, large print, or digitised audio. These must be recognised as part of a process, not a copy in their own right, and as permissible under any regime, legislative or voluntary. Agencies must be able to keep these files indefinitely, against future demand.
It will be increasingly desirable to download a text via the Internet, or use publishers’ disks, instead of buying a hard copy prior to any adaptation of that text for the visually impaired reader. While it will be reasonable to pay as much for this as one would for a hard copy, rightsowners should not be able to prevent it from happening (subject to reassurances about restricted circulation).
Cheaper means of production mean that many small organisations, such as local public libraries or mainstream schools, will be involved in the production of alternative formats. This means that, if there is no legal accommodation of our requirements, there will either be anarchy and disregard for the law, or enormous bureaucracy
Agencies need to modify the presentation of material when preparing it for a visually impaired reader. This may mean adding braille formatting codes, inserting descriptions of graphical material, or adding electronic bookmarks. Legislation needs to acknowledge that this sort of modification is different from modification of content, to which rightsowners could legitimately object.
Implications for individuals
People increasingly want their first copy of an item in an electronic form, either on floppy disk or downloaded on to their computer’s hard disk. This enables them to navigate quickly, and in some instances then to choose which parts to make into hard copy. While these benefits are available to all, they are especially advantageous for visually impaired people, given that the electronic version may be the only one accessible to them, and very likely the only one instantly available. Hence, legal provision must acknowledge that an electronic version of a text is, for many, the equivalent of a hard copy, to which the visually impaired person has equal entitlement.
The Internet
The Internet is an obvious means of distribution, for a number of reasons. It can overcome the bulk of braille. It can be used to send pre-formatted files from a specialist centre for access or reproduction elsewhere. It allows access to national catalogues of alternative format material. Inter-library lending across frontiers is greatly simplified. Copyright barriers, particularly international barriers, to the full exploitation of the Internet in this way would be extremely detrimental..
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Should we pay to access material in alternative formats, or should blind and partially sighted people be given access free of charge?
Mr view is that we should pay, but for content, not for permission. We should not pay twice, and we should only pay for what we get. If an item contains text, pictures and animation, and only the text is accessible, any payment due should reflect that..
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The EU Council of Ministers and various committees of the European Parliament are currently considering a Proposal for a Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society (Com 97/628)
This would allow member states to make special exceptions in their national legislation for visually and hearing impaired people, but the European Blind Union is arguing that mandatory exemptions are required if fresh barriers are not to be erected by inconsistent arrangements in each member state..
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I would very much welcome the views and the experiences of participants at this conference, or of anyone subsequently reading these notes. It is important for campaigners to gather individual and specific instances with which to illustrate the principles they advance.
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Copyright in the |Information Society is an area in which there is still much to play for. Principles and practices are still evolving, and there is much to be done if we are to attain a situation where the rights of intellectual property owners and those of print disabled people are balanced on a basis of mutual respect.
* "Copyright Law and the Rights of Blind People", RIB,October 1997, can be found on RNIB’s web site (http://www.rnib.org.uk/wesupply/publicat/copyr.htm) or can be ordered from RNIB in braille, audio tape, large print or on disk. (contact Clare McDonald at RNIB, PO Box 173, Peterborough, PE2 6WS, England, tel +44 1733-370777).
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