Special Student Exercise on the Diplomatic Conference for adoption of a Treaty on Limitations and Exceptions for Visually Impaired

Persons / Persons with Print Disabilities Marrakesh, Morocco (17-28 June 2013)

A special Assignment Project under the WIPO Academy DL202 Course on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property Submitted to

Submitted By Sanjeev Kumar Chaswal and Emil Stoyanov Edissonov

WIPO Academy, World Intellectual Property Organisation, Geneva,

Head Teacher: Ms. Irini Stamatoudi

Teacher: Ms. Shaista Keating

CONTENTS INDEX
1. What are the key objectives of theTreaty 1.1. First key objectives I. Mandatory limitations II. Optional limitations III. Copyrighted works at stake IV. Accessible format copies V. Beneficiary person VI. Authorized entity 1.1.1. Second key objectives

2. Is it necessary do adopt a specific Treaty to address the needs of the visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities? Describe the pros and cons of the adoption of this Treaty? 2.1. 2.2. 2.2.2 National and regional provisions Pros and cons of the Treaty The main cons of the Treaty

2.2.1. The main pros of the treatyTreaty

3. Do you think that commercial publishers selling their books online will be affected by the possible adoption of this Treaty? How will these publishers be affected? 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Amazon Kindle 2 versus Authors Guild Affect on the online Books Present economic scenario Affect on Piracy

4. Do you think that the adoption of the Draft VIP Treaty will affect the economy of your country? If yes, how will the economy be affected? 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Encouragement to International reciprocal Policies The duplication of work Wastage of Resources Cross border sharing of accessible works Internet a state less boundaries Profitability in Audio format Impact on India Impact on Spain

5. What are your main conclusions and recommendations regarding the Draft VIP Treaty? 5.1. 5.2. Conclusions Recommendations

EXERCISE ON THE DRAFT TREATY ON LIMITATIONS AND EXCEPTIONS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS/PERSONS WITH PRINT DISABILITIES (2013) _________________________ 1. What are the key objectives of theTreaty? The Treaty seeks fundamental objectives of non-discrimination, equal opportunity, access, and complete individual development, effective as well as inclusive participation in society. The Treaty of Marrakesh truly balances human rights and intellectual property rights. The Treaty recognizes the obligation of right holders to make works accessible to persons with visual impairments and to the print disabled, recognizes that though countries have different limitations and exceptions to their copyright laws, a uniform international framework is required to address the needs of this section of society in order to harmonize the law on this point and to ensure cross-border exchange of books in accessible formats. The key objectives of the Treaty are two, namely, a) To improve the access to copyrighted works such as books, texts and audio books for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled (hereinafter, referred to together as VIP persons)1; and b) To promote the exchange across borders of accessible format works by organizations that serve VIP persons.

1.1. First key objectives I. Mandatory limitations: In order to manage the first key objective the Treaty provides for the contracting states to introduce in their national copyright laws legal provisions that include limitations or exceptions to the exclusive economic rights of the copyright holders (Article 4(1)(a)). Those exclusive rights are the right of reproduction, the right of distribution and the right of public communication. That is to say, particular persons or organizations (see details below) will be able to make and / or issue copies of a book to, or otherwise make the book available to VIP persons without having to seek the permission of the publisher and/or author of such a book.

1 Visually impaired persons

II.

Optional limitations: The Treaty also sets forth an option for the contracting states to adopt a limitation or exception to the right of public performance. This option will be left at the discretion of each contacting state. Limitations other than those expressly established by the treatyTreaty may also be provided by each contracting state taking into account its economic situation, its social and cultural needs.

III.

Copyrighted works at stake: For the purposes of the Treaty, copyrighted works are literary and artistic works, in the form of text, notation and /or related illustrations, including audio books (Article 2(a)).

IV.

Accessible format copies: Furthermore, the copyrighted works must be in accessible format copies, that is, copies in an alternative manner or form which gives a beneficiary person access to the work, including permitting the person to have access as feasibly and comfortably as a person without visual impairment or other print disability. The accessible format copy is used exclusively by beneficiary persons and it must respect the integrity of the original work, taking due consideration of the changes needed to make the work accessible in the alternative format and of the accessibility needs of the beneficiary persons (Article 2(b)).

V.

Beneficiary person: The persons that can benefit from the above-mentioned limitations are persons who, regardless of any other disabilities, (a) are blind; (b) have a visual impairment or a perceptual or reading disability which cannot be improved to give visual function substantially equivalent to that of a person who has no such impairment or disability and so is unable to read printed works to substantially the same degree as a person without an impairment or disability; or (c) are otherwise unable, through physical disability, to hold or manipulate a book or to focus or move the eyes to the extent that would be normally acceptable for reading (Article 3).

VI.

Authorized entity: As stated above, the copyrighted works, say printed books, are to be converted into accessible format copies so that VIP person can have an efficient access to such books. The former shall not however be made by any persons. For this purpose, the treatyTreaty requires the creation on a national scale of the so-called authorized

entity which will be the body in charge of making and facilitating the accessible format copies of the copyrighted works to the VIP persons. The authorized entities include entities which are authorized or recognized by the national government to provide education, instructional training, adaptive reading or information access to beneficiary persons on a non-profit basis, as well as government institutions or non-profit organizations that provide the same services to beneficiary persons as one of its primary activities or institutional obligations (Article 2(c)). 1.1.1. Second key objective: 1. For the purposes of its second main goal, the Treaty provides for a cross-border exchange of accessible format copies, which includes importation of same without the permission of the owners of the copyright. 2. It establishes that accessible format copies may be distributed or made available by an authorized entity to a beneficiary person or an authorized entity in another Contracting Party. 3. The other purpose of the Treaty is that national authorized entities can benefit from the harmonization of the limitations or exceptions limitations to the exclusive economic rights of the copyright holders, so that they may operate efficiently across borders on an international scale. 4. The practical result from the aforementioned should be that different contracting states will be able to make and share with each other accessible format copies of different books. 5. This should in turn amount to an increase of the total number of accessible format copies and, at the same time, to avoiding duplicity of efforts and costs.

2. Is it necessary tdo adopt a specific Treaty to address the needs of the visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities? Describe the pros and cons of the adoption of this Treaty? 2.1. National and regional provisions: a) Under current legal framework, it is left to national governments to define what limitations and exceptions are permitted under their national copyright laws. These laws tend to include limitations and exceptions to the exclusive rights of the copyright holders to uses in certain circumstances, which are compatible with fair

practices, primarily under the Berne Convention, e.g. fair use (USA), fair dealing (UK) or private copy (Spain). But, it should be noted, generally, national copyright laws do not provide for specific limitations or exceptions for the use of copyrighted works for or by VIP persons. b) This is why an adoption of a specific international Treaty that can a) b) c) address the issue of the lack of access of the VIP persons to books, impose mandatory exceptions and harmonize same at an international level is necessary.

c) In the EU, for instance, EU law provides for the possibility of Member states adopting national exceptions of the rights of reproduction and communication to the public for the benefit of persons with disabilities (Article 5(3)(b) EU Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC)2. The fact that the said provision does not create an obligation for Member states is another reason why the adoption of the treatyTreaty is necessary. 2.2. Pros and cons of the Treaty: Though, many of countrys commercial and other national entities are going to debate upon the positive as ell as negative aspects of this Treaty and are going to intensively debate for years with regard to the necessity perhaps of concluded Treaty. It is no doubt that this Treaty is certainly going to forge lasting impression on accessibility of reading material to blinds world wide but also going to create a sense of social responsibility with in the author community, whose works in not available in accessible formats thereby motivating them to provide their work accessible formats after the conclusion of the Treaty, this will not significantly improve the accessibility of the works in different formats VIPs but will further improve overall image of the copyright work. In over all contexts, this Treaty will certainly ensures international harmonization of limitations and exceptions between the countries to facilitate the global sharing of knowledge resources through accessible formats and the other main aspect of the Treaty is to facilitate the cross-border sharing of copyrighted works that for the benefit of visually impaired. The other positive aspect of this culminated Treaty, This Treaty text provides the authorized entities shall be permitted, without the authorization of the copyright rights holder, to make an accessible format copy of a work, obtain a work in

The Copyright Directive (officially the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, also known as the Information Society Directiv

accessible format from another authorized entity, and supply those copies to a beneficiary person (the visually impaired) by any means, including by noncommercial lending or by electronic communication by wire or wireless means on a non-profit basis, while it is also possible that making an accessible format copy of a work is effectuated by the beneficiary himself or by another person acting on his behalf, e.g. a caretaker, for the personal use of the beneficiary.3 This Treaty has tries to achieve a balance between the publishers right to invest in accessible formats of works and the right of the visually impaired to have equal access to knowledge through a variety of sources. 2.2.1. The main pros of the Treaty can be listed as follows: a) Establishing specific limitations / exceptions for the use of copyrighted works for VIP persons; b) Harmonizing the limitations / exceptions for the use of copyrighted works for VIP persons; c) Providing the possibility of establishing further limitations / exceptions which encourages the contracting states to develop them and go beyond the provisions of the Treaty when the particular circumstances require so; d) Promotion and encouragement of cross-border exchange of accessible copies; e) Respect to the right of publishers and authors to perceive remuneration by providing for the possibility of the limitations / exceptions being subject to remuneration; f) Possibility for the poor counties to benefit from accessible copies already made in other countries by way of the schemes for sharing such copies. 2.2.2 The main cons of the Treaty can be listed as follows:

a) This treaty is not obligatory or binding precedent on all countries to sign and ratify; the Treaty is a voluntary on the part of the country to sign and ratify. b) This Treaty has failed to coordinate with other International Bodies, NISO4, ANSI5 and International ISBN agency6 with regard to printed material. c) This Treaty has further failed to incorporate or rope in International ISBN agency on the distribution of the books and distribution standards for e-books and ISBN assignment standards.

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On copyright and rights of persons with disabilities: WIPO treatyTreaty for the blind By Tatiana Sinodinou, Department of Law, University of Cyprushttp://kluwercopyrightblog.com/2013/04/19/on-copyright-and-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-wipo-treatyTreaty-for-the-blind/ NISO is where content publishers, libraries, and software developers turn for information industry standards that allow them to work together. Through NISO, all of these communities are able to collaborate on mutually accepted standards solutions that enhance their operations today and form a foundation for the future. View a timeline of NISO's milestones since its inception in 1939.
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The American National Standards Institute) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique] numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W. H. Smith and others in 1965.

d) This Treaty unlike an EU Regulation or Directive, the Treaty does not place obligations on governments unless they (voluntarily) deposit their instruments of ratification. e) This Treaty does not have definite date of entry to bring the Treaty into force. f) As pursuant to Article 18, it will enter into force three months after 20 eligible parties referred to in Article 15 have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession there is no mandatory provision deposit ratification and accession with stipulated period of time. g) There are many countries, which are yet to ratify Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement in their countries, so the ratification of this Treaty is doubtful. h) This many clauses of this Treaty are considered to be inconsistent with basic agreements, such as the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement, which do not address at an international level the limitations and exceptions set forth in the Treaty. i) j) That some countries may not adhere to the Treaty is against the harmonization of copyright law at international level sought by the Berne Convention. The Treaty may thus create a precedent, which may not be adopted by all the members of the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement. 3. Do you think that commercial publishers selling their books online will be affected by the possible adoption of this Treaty? How will these publishers be affected? 3.1 Amazon Kindle 2 versus Authors Guild : Last decade had seen fastest technological developments, actually, which had intensified the tug of war between the interests and user, at one hand publishers resist adoption of broader exceptions terms as they feel, it would lead to massive piracy and could be higher, at the same time imposing excessive technological protection measures may significantly hamper the conversion to an accessible format, as the conversion to accessible formats is an act of exploitation, which is creates new user thus copyright holders have a right and interest to control. In this context there is a US case of USA, where the Internet giant Amazon caves to Authors Guild7 over Kindle's text-to-speech reading8, the Authors Guild had objected to the text-to-speech function on Amazon's Kindle 2, claiming that it infringed on audio book copyright. Today, Amazon said that while the feature is legally sound, they would be willing to disable text-to-speech on a title-by-title basis at the rights holder's request9 though the Guardian's Books Blog pointed out that: Clearly the
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The Authors Guild is a not-for-profit American organization of and for authors. It has around eight thousand members, among them published authors, literary agents and attorneys who mainly deal in book publishing. 8 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/01/authors-guild-blocks-kindle-voice 9 http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/02/28/0127236/amazon-caves-on-kindle-2-text-to-speechPosted by Soul skill on Saturday February 28, 2009 @09:16AM from the unexpectedly-generous dept.

Authors Guild wants to take a firm position early about the emerging technology, but this campaign seems misguided. If it weren't, one might expect the first people to side with the Authors Guild to be Amazon, since, as well as manufacturing the Kindle, the company owns Audible, a download site which accounts for 95% of the online audio-book market.10 The author Guild has opposed Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature, as author Guild has felt that it encroached on audio books without compensating the actual copyright holders, the Amazon had back down and has allowed authors and publishers themselves to decide whether to activate the read-aloud feature on individual titles or not but this move of the Amazon had prompted the disability groups to organized themselves into a Reading Rights Coalition11 and since then have been demanding full access to text-to-speech as it gives the visually impaired equal access to electronic books. 3.2 Affect on the online Books: In principle, the Treaty may affect negatively the publishers of books as they may see their sales reduced, especially in the case of audio books. The Publishers that wish to distribute accessible formats such as audio books may see their sales down. However, from another point of view, the publishers may be affected positively in the sense that the authorized entities may need to purchase the books in order to make the accessible copies. This will result in the publishers experiencing a rise in the sale of printed books. There is also the possibility of book publishers not being affected on the grounds that their sales would not go down. This may be especially the case of the developing countries where the big part of the population cannot afford purchasing books. 3.3 Present economic scenario: That in the present scenario the leap of the digital technique / e-books have been damaging the economics of print media, as the transition from print to e-books do not look as promising in the long run, as people have assumed nor have able to make much impact but the audio books are a billion dollar market12, the rights for which are packaged separately and are far more valuable than e-book rights. Thus

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/01/authors-guild-blocks-kindle-voice

The Reading Rights Coalition, The coalition represents people who cannot read print includes the blind, people with dyslexia, people with learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many others for whom the addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 245,000 books, 12 How Amazon Became the King of Audio books Recorded books are now a billion -dollar business, which Amazon dominates perhaps like none other. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/07/how-amazon-became-the-king-of-audiobooks/277836/

audio market is such a big market that authors and user will certainly get benefit from the digitalization of their knowledge work in accessible format. The author or copyright holders through digital / internet can exploit the work in many folds due to unmanageable reach of the internet across the globe much larger then print exploitation with minimum expenditure as good text-to-speech is even more powerful then the printed Braille text, as not only can blind and visually impaired readers enjoy your books, even normal person may use it and certainly, it is going to potentially have instant, automated audio books. 3.4 Affect on Piracy: Moreover, it may be argued that piracy would be discouraged only, if the accessible format copies are made available to VIP persons for free or at nominal cost. Otherwise, third parties may see themselves inclined to "compete" with the authorized entities by way of distributing (cheaper) pirate copies to the public. Taking into account that, in principle, no party is going to give reading material or material in accessible format free but through internet the publisher can provide audio format through the help of internet services providers, such as Amazon, google on a discount price providing monthly membership, the charges may vary in accordance to the region and other way is to provide student edition on cheaper price to ward off piracy. The most suitable and fair solution might be for the contracting states (developed countries with powerful book publishing industries) to adapt national provision according to which the limitations / exceptions set forth in the Treaty be subject to remuneration. This measure will respect both book publishers and authors rights to remuneration / royalties. Let us not forget that it is for governments to worry about VIP persons having access to books, not for businesses. 4. Do you think that the adoption of the Draft VIP Treaty will affect the economy of your country? If yes, how will the economy be affected? 4.1 Encouragement to International reciprocal Policies: This Treaty will bring end to many past inconsistent reciprocal policies remained between countries as due to lack of such type of International agreement made impossible to share material between countries in accessible formats. Which had led to continuance of barriers on sharing of works, there by only a small fraction of published books, estimated to be not more than 5% to seven 7% of works
13
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were

http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/news/Pages/JUne-17-Press-Release-for-WIPO-Book-Treaty.aspx

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made in accessible formats to visually impaired persons with print impairment of developed countries. It will further lead to more sharing, we have seen in the past that developed countries have been sharing a fewer works in accessible formats with visually impaired persons of developing economies. Statically this number is lower in the poorest regions, where only 1% of books are available in accessible formats. This Treat will become more effective and will show overall positive result only, when all countries, who have signed and pledged ratification of this Treaty will sincerely work on its implementation, thus only joint efforts of all countries, irrespective of developed and developing countries can bring positive changes in lifes as well as social acceptability of VIP, as visually impaired of the developing countries are yet climb social and financial ladder, who have been ignored from main educational stream for many years. 4.2 The duplication of work Wastage of Resources: This Treaty will encourage the use of new technologies to improve the state of affairs in relation to production and distribution of books in accessible formats. Due to non availability of the Treaty, which had led to repeated duplication of books in accessible formats in each country thereby wasting of money and resources, thus making availability of accessible work a difficult proposition for the country with limited resources and this has led to deprivation of access material that too separately in an accessible format for a VIP community with fewer percentage, thus country with limited financial resources always discouraged unnecessarily putting financial burden on its economy. Now after conclusion of the Treaty, it will cast obligation on developed countries to remove barriers to access works in accessible form. This Treaty will foster technological cooperation and encourage developed countries to play a pivotal role in making works accessible in audio, digital, electronic and ebook forms reading material in plenty with minuscule costs to VIP of developing countries. The developed countries may also bring newer digital technologies, book publishing equipments for installation, which in turn spurt the sale of the genuine books, thereby making them to churn out profits for commercial entities. This Treaty will make developing countries to join path of development with positive impact, thus churning a wheel of overall development and financial betterment for every one and all. Thus this Treaty will foster cooperation in eradicating the Book famine from the world scene. 4.3 Cross border sharing of accessible works:

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This Treaty will encourage cross-border sharing of accessible formats that would increase efficiency, as it will allow maximum utilisation of each other resources thereby allowing fewer resources to be spent on the creation of new accessible format of books and will further help in reducing unnecessary duplication of titles, it will certainly lower financial burden of all. This cooperation format will work more effectively, where the countries are having one common language. This Treaty will certainly create positive affects in economy of the developing countries, where there are dearth of resources to create accessible copies of copyrighted works for their VIP people and for poor countries, where VIP live in abduct poverty. The concluded Treaty for the Blinds will unlock the large digital libraries of accessible works that are now off limits due to outdated international copyright rules. This concluded agreement will give a new hope for the millions of blind and visually impaired persons of developing countries to expand their knowledge horizon as well as expanded access of knowledge and culture. This Treaty is going to create numerous avenues for exploitation of knowledge work through accessible formats for the user as well as for the interest holders, commercial entities including publishers of developed, developing countries. In the long term, certainly, these exceptions of this Treaty is going to bring new customers and newer markets for publishers, as a result of more print impaired persons will be able to access the reading material in other accessible formats, there by making them more educated and financially sufficient to buy more books in accessible formats. 4.4 Internet a state less boundaries: Every day, so much of technological advancement is taking place around the world that every country is clamoring for bringing, adoption of newer technological innovations in digital, electronic spheres. Today due to invasion of the internet and other digital formats, the countries have enormous option, potential open before the them to join as single world community, this technological advancement in the Internet has led to creation of boundaries less countries and the world has become one village thereby making every country economy inter woven with each other, thus any positive of negative effect may one way or other affect the economy of other country. This Treaty will ultimately discourage individual efforts to convert a book into an accessible format, when they can buy the accessible version easily, if publisher and author or copyright holders shoulder social responsibility in providing knowledge

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through accessible format to marginalized community, though their social endeavour may earn a little less then in comparison to the commercial gain but certainly they are going to gain respectability and in the long run it will also help them in containing piracy to the large extent. 4.5 Profitability in Audio format: That in the present scenario the leap of the digital technique / e-books though may be a damaging economics of print media to some extent and further the transition from print to e-books do not seems to be as promising in the long run, as people have assumed nor have able to make much impact but the audio books are a billion dollar market and is going to increase its volume, the audio rights, which are packaged separately and are going to be more valuable than e-book rights. Thus audio market is going to be such a big market that authors and user will certainly get benefit from the digitalization of their knowledge work in accessible format. around. The author or copyright holders through digital / internet can exploit the audio work in many folds due to boundaries less reach of the internet across the globe much larger and faster with minimum expenditure then print exploitation, as good text-tospeech is even more powerful then the printed Braille text as not only can blind and visually impaired readers enjoy your books, even normal person may use it and certainly it is going to potentially have instant, automated audio books. 4.6 Impact on India: As far as India is concerned, the impact of the Treaty will certainly bring positive financial impact, as India has been for long actively participating in the world affairs as newer internet / digital technological advancement India more closer to the developed countries and is also effectively part of one village. Thus any positive and negative effect will certainly effect vice versa but this treatyTreaty is boon for India as in India only 1% of all books are available in accessible formats and it is stated that 90 % of which live in developing countries and out of which 47 million14 of the worlds visually impaired persons stay in India. In order to tackle this deficit and the India has timely realized Amendment of the Copyright Act, 2012. This amendment introduced S. 52 (1) (zb), which permits the conversion of a work into any accessible format exclusively for the benefit of persons
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Even developed countries are going to reap benefits / profits by selling

these works to the deficient population thereby bringing over all positive effect all

http://spicyipindia.blogspot.in/2013/07/the-marrakesh-miracle-salient-features.html

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with disabilities. This amendment came before the Marrakesh Treaty and in all probability would have been have been upheld up as a shining example at the Marrakesh Conference. 4.7 Impact on Spain: Finally, as regards Spain, it should be noted that there is no information to suggest that the Treaty will have a noticeable impact on the Spanish economy. In Spain, in 2008 there were 70,000 blind persons15, which may not be a considerable number taking into consideration the total number of blind persons world-wide. In Spain, printed books accessible for VIP persons have already been released16. It is a printed book that features a NFC (Near Field Communication) chip that can be read by a smart phone which provides an audio version of the book. It should be noted that it is a private initiative. This might be a suitable solution as both VIP persons and persons with no visual disabilities may have access to books in the same copy. 5. What are your main conclusions and recommendations regarding the Draft VIP Treaty? 5.1. Conclusions: The circumstances in which the Treaty is passed are the following. According to the World Blind Union, there are an estimated 285 million blind and partially sighted persons worldwide17. Currently, only 5% of all published books in the developed countries and less than 1% in the developing countries are ever produced in accessible formats18. In that context, the adoption of the Treaty is an important groundbreaking measure towards VIP persons having access to culture and literature. This will be most noticed in developing countries where, as seen above, less than 1% of published books are available in accessible copies. The Treaty may also be seen as a triumph over discrimination as many VIP persons will be able to have access to the same books as people with no visual disabilities. The cross-border exchange of accessible format copies should reduce costs, as the authorized entities may collaborate in the sense that they may exchange the copies they have made and avoid duplications in the making of new. This measure should eliminate duplication and increase efficiency.
15http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/magazine/2008/434/1200737903.html 16http://andaluciainformacion.es/granada/307849/el-primer-libro-adaptado-para-invidentes-con-tecnologia-nfc-en-espana-tiene-sabor-granadino/ 17http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/Pages/default.aspx 18http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/news/Pages/WBU-Statement-on-Marrakesh-TreatyTreaty.aspx

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It should also be noted that the Treaty states that it shall be a matter for national law to determine whether the limitations or exceptions are subject to remuneration {Article (4) (5)}. This means that the Treaty respects the right to fair remuneration of publishers and authors. It is important that the business and right holders also see their interests taken into account, because their co-operation will be crucial for the fulfillment of the objectives of the Treaty. The cross-border exchange of accessible format copies as set forth by the Treaty is an important step ahead in the cooperation on an international scale. In the globalized world that we live in where copyright works can be shared in a small fraction of time on the internet across continents, this cooperation is crucial. Not only should this measure result in an increase of the total number of accessible format copies but it should also imply an important reduction of costs. This is especially important to third-world and developing counties where resources are scarce. In the context of the aforesaid, it should be noted that many African countries as well as India and Pakistan where English is the official or co-official language may benefit from the works made available in accessible format copies by authorized entities in the USA, UK or Australia. Further, the notable achievement can be gauged from the fact that arrival of consensus amongst the countries thus paved the way for culmination of this Treaty, as it demonstrates that transparency in international policy making altogether can bring wonders. Usually the Treaty convention of massive scales always does have its own teething problems in maintaining workings as well as bringing various factions to consensus solutions but due to detailed working of WIPO has given impetus in culmination of this convention in to a success. The final conclusion of the Treaty is with in satisfaction of all stakeholders as well as of member states, which clearly proves that how a wide spectrum of interests can forge their differences and come together in arriving consensus on draft of international copyright policy that respects, protects as well as considers the rights of all. This Treaty is a victory for all but especially for the blind, visually impaired, and print disabled but also for the multilateral system said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. The international community has demonstrated the capacity to tackle specific problems, and to agree a consensus solution.19 Still this Treaty still needs to be ratified by each of the member states in their respective domestic legislative domain governed by each country and how copyright industry lobby reacts for its domestic ratification, as this copyright lobby relentlessly
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http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2013/article_0017.html

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fought to delegitimize the Treaty, through over the years, they will still try to exert their might in stalling ratification in their respective countries and if these lobbies are able to succeed, this may create impediment in a way making this Treaty as effective tool, thus in coming months we will have to see its outcome, in case of failure in culminating ratification by individual countries than it is bound to create dent in reputation of the world body as well as huge encumbrance on the Treatys efficacy, as many of famous and its accessible works actually originates from these developed countries. But from now next few months, we will have to closely watch out to see how this Treaty bring effects between various stake holders including its whether it is benefiting hundreds of millions of persons with print disability around the world. As of Today all countries were supporting the Treaty are quietly optimistic of its positive after effects. This is a real team effort of all the stake holders including member states, who came together with consensus within short period forking out their differences and whole heartedly supported in the sake of hundreds of millions of persons with print disability around the world, it is really worth to observe that there is a serious attempt on the part of the world community to strike a balance between the interests of copyright owners and the public at large. Hence for now onwards, we are sure that the Copyright law should be used as a tool to foster development and inclusion and should not perpetuate monopolies created by a minority segment. 5.2. Recommendations: The world body WIPO has to frame definite date of entry to bring the Treaty into force, so the VIPs can take benefit of this Treaty. To make this Treaty more affective for the benefit of visually impaired persons, we need to need to implement forge alliance between other International Bodies involved with printed material and books as this Treaty has failed to coordinate with other International Bodies, NISO, ANSI and International ISBN agency with regard to printed material. The WIPO has to involve ISBN20 as this Treaty did not rope in International ISBN agency on the distribution of the books and distribution standards for e-books and ISBN assignment standards.

20

ibid

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This Treaty is to be made like an EU Regulation or Directive, so it becomes obligatory on the part of the countries on governments to deposit their instruments of ratification. Many clauses have to rework on this Treaty, as to remove inconsistency with basic agreements, such as the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement, which do not address at an international level the limitations and exceptions set forth in the Treaty. Furthermore, a unified database of all printed material and books, which may includes e-book or accessible copies must be maintained to ward of piracy from its roots. This database can be stored and managed by WIPO with the help of ISBN. The said database should include at least the following informations: the names of the books that have been made available in accessible format copies the location (either physical or on the internet) where the accessible format copies can be found the name of the authorized entity that have made the accessible format copies, the purpose of the database would be to facilitate the access to the accessible format copies for both authorized entities and VIP persons. ____________________________________________________________________

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