In May we wrote that the federal government had introduced Bill C-11 to implement the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled (aka Marrakesh VIP Treaty or MVT). Since then, Bill C-11 has been passed and received Royal Assent. It is now SC 2016, c 4, and came into force on June 22.

At the time of our earlier post the MVT had only 16 of the required 20 contracting parties. Chile, Ecuador, and Guatemala then ratified it, and Canada’s accession on June 30 supplied the required 20. The treaty is now scheduled to come into force on September 30, 2016 in all contracting states.

The new legislation amends sections 32 and 32.01 of the Copyright Act to strengthen and standardize the existing exceptions for Persons with Perceptual Disabilities. According to the summary of the treaty, the new provisions serve “to permit reproduction, distribution and making available of published works in formats designed to be accessible to VIPs, and to permit exchange of these works across borders by organizations that serve those beneficiaries.”

The full text of the Treaty (including in formats accessible to visually impaired persons (VIPs)), along with other information about the treaty and contracting parties, is hosted on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website.

Post written by Kim Nayyer.