ABSTRACT
As a response to the new threats posed by digital technologies, the WIPO Internet Treaties (1996) launched a new waves of copyright reforms, which broadened the range of exclusive rights, compressed exceptions and limitations, and introduced sanctions against the circumvention of technological protection measures implemented by right-holders. This tilt in the copyright balance worsened the problems affecting the market of accessible works for differently able individuals. The UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities acknowledged this clash and stated, in the same provision recognizing the right to culture (Article 30), that States should ensure that their intellectual property laws do not hinder the enjoyment of cultural rights of disabled individuals. This move triggered the issuance of the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty, introducing a specific copyright exception for visually impaired individuals, and leading to reforms rethinking the balance between copyright and the need of differently individuals. This chapter will provide an overview of the long path that led legislators to intervene on this interplay, first through private ordering tools and then through the enactment of specific copyright exceptions (Section 1). Section 2 will analyse the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty and the feature of its mandatory exception for visually impaired individuals and authorized entities, followed by an assessment of its implementation in the European Union (Section 3) and across the world (Section 4). This will allow sketching the state of the art of the copyright balance vis-à-vis disability, and to conclude by looking at the road ahead (Section 5).
Sganga, Caterina, Does Copyright Ease Inclusivity of Differently Able Individuals? (July 15, 2023) in Cristiana Sappa (ed), Research Handbook on IPRs and Inclusivity, Edward Elgar, 2024 Forthcoming.
Leave a Reply