The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, referred to as the Marrakesh Treaty, was adopted on June 27, 2013. It is one of the international copyright treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization. It has a distinct humanitarian and social development dimension, and its main goal is to create a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions that benefit the blind, visually impaired (visually impaired) and other print disabled persons.
The Marrakesh Treaty is a historic treaty in the international copyright system. It provides numerous limitations and exceptions to facilitate the access of visually impaired persons to published works. It is an international treaty with human rights in the field of copyright, and it is also a good deed to solve the “book shortage” problem faced by 340 million blind, visually impaired and other print disabled persons in the world. 80 countries around the world, including China, have signed the treaty.
Authorized entities are a core concept of the treaty and can be defined as non-profit organizations, such as public institutions such as libraries, that are granted a range of exceptions and limitations to copyright in order to address the scarcity and dissemination of accessible format works.
The Marrakesh Treaty has a clear structure and sets clear rules for limitations and exceptions both at the national and cross-border levels. First, the treaty requires contracting parties to provide limitations or exceptions for visually impaired persons in their national copyright laws. The rights subject to such limitations or exceptions are the rights of reproduction, distribution and making available to the public. Authorized entities can make accessible format copies on a not-for-profit basis, which can be distributed through non-commercial lending or electronic communication. The conditions for this activity include having the legal right to use the work, making only those modifications necessary to make the work accessible, and making these copies available only to beneficiaries. Visually impaired persons who have the legal right to use accessible format copies of works may also make copies for their personal use. Nationally, countries can limit limitations or exceptions to works that are “not commercially available in that market on reasonable terms for beneficiaries in a particular accessible format.” To take advantage of this provision, notification must be made to the Director General of WIPO. Secondly, the Marrakesh Treaty requires Contracting Parties to allow the import and export of accessible format copies in certain circumstances. With regard to import, accessible format copies may be imported without the authorization of the right holder when they can be made under domestic law. With regard to export, accessible format copies made under limitations or exceptions or other laws may be distributed or made available by an authorized entity to beneficiaries or authorized entities of another Contracting Party. This specific limitation or exception requires that the work be used exclusively by the beneficiaries. The Marrakesh Treaty also clarifies that, before distribution or making available, the authorized entity must not know or have reasonable grounds to know that the accessible format copy will be used by others.