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Written evidence submitted by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)

1. About us

As the largest organisation of blind and partially sighted people in the UK, RNIB is pleased to have the opportunity to respond to this consultation. We are an active member of the World Blind Union (WBU), and support its Right to Read campaign as one of our principal concerns in both UK and international arenas. We are a member of the Right to Read Alliance, which endorses this response. RNIB is also a publisher of accessible formats such as Braille, Daisy audio and large print.

We are a membership organisation with over 10,000 members who are blind, partially sighted or the friends and family of people with sight loss. 80 per cent of our Trustees and Assembly Members are blind or partially sighted. We encourage members to be involved in our work and regularly consult with them on government policy and their ideas for change. Through our open governance process we represent the interests of the 370,000 registered blind and partially sighted people in the UK.

As a campaigning organisation of blind and partially sighted people, we fight for the rights of people with sight loss in each of the UK’s countries. Our priorities are to:

· Stop people losing their sight unnecessarily

· Support independent living for blind and partially sighted people

· Create a society that is inclusive of blind and partially sighted people's interests and needs.

We also provide expert knowledge to business and the public sector through consultancy on improving the accessibility of the built environment, technology, products and services.

2. Executive summary

2.1 The "book famine"

Blind, partially sighted and other people with print disabilities such as dyslexia read books using "accessible formats" such as audio, braille or large print. However, only a small percentage of books are ever made available in accessible formats – a situation RNIB refers to as a "book famine". Indeed, these barriers extend beyond books to areas such as educational and vocational training materials and accessible online newspapers.

There are various reasons for this "book famine", and some can be addressed through licensing and improvements in technology. Nevertheless, some significant access barriers are to be found in an outdated national and international intellectual property (IP) system.

2.2 Disabled people’s rights

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities1 , which the UK has ratified, makes explicit disabled people’s right to accessible information, and requires governments to ensure that intellectual property law does not constitute a barrier to disabled people’s enjoyment of culture.

2.3 Contracts should not negate copyright exceptions

We agree with Hargreaves and the Government response on the need to ensure that contracts do not negate the enjoyment of copyright exceptions such as the 2002 Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act.

2.4 Private copying / format-shifting

Blind and partially sighted people need to be able to format-shift to fully access published works. We support moves to ensure such action is made legal.

2.5 Technological protection measures

RNIB believes there is scope to improve the legal situation whereby the onus is on an individual to complain if TPMs block his or her legal access to a published work.

2.6 Need for an international copyright treaty for print disabled people

RNIB supports efforts at the World Intellectual Property Organisation to agree a binding international treaty to improve access to published works for blind and other print disabled people. We urge the UK Government to support a binding treaty, and to work within the EU to achieve EU backing for such a treaty.

2.7 Economic growth / participation of disabled people

RNIB believes that appropriate copyright law which improves disabled people’s access to published works will help strengthen the UK’s economy.

3. Why the Hargreaves review matters to RNIB

3.1 The "book famine"

Blind, partially sighted and other people with print disabilities such as dyslexia read books using "accessible formats" such as audio, braille or large print. Though it is possible to produce any book in an accessible format for a print disabled person, most are never published in such formats. Ideally, RNIB would like to publishers to publish their books in accessible formats. However, the work of transcribing accessible books is mostly left to charities such as RNIB. As a result, only a small percentage of books are ever available in accessible formats – a situation RNIB refers to as a "book famine".

It should be noted that these barriers extend beyond books to areas such as educational and vocational training materials and, "apps" to access online newspapers.

There are various reasons for this "book famine", and some can be addressed through licensing and improvements in technology. However, some significant access barriers are to be found in an outdated national and international intellectual property (IP) system.

RNIB has focused its response to this inquiry on those areas where the revision of the intellectual property system, as envisaged by the Hargreaves review, could help to improve access to published works and IP protected material for print disabled people.

3.2 Disabled people’s rights

Disabled people have legally recognised rights that RNIB believes should be accommodated by the modification of the IP system. In particular, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities1 , which the UK has ratified, makes explicit disabled people’s right to accessible information, (Article 21) and that 'laws protecting intellectual property rights should not place unreasonable or discriminatory barriers in the way of access to cultural materials" (Article 30).

3.3 Contracts should not negate copyright exceptions

In the UK RNIB campaigned for an exception to copyright law which became the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002. The Act provides a legal right to access where a license is not available, and a platform upon which blanket licensing can be built. It allows visually impaired individuals to make accessible copies of copyright works that they legally own. It also enables organisations such as RNIB to do the same, or to describe or enhance a work to render it accessible, without falling foul of copyright law.

With the proper working of this copyright exception in mind, we agree with Hargreaves and the Government response on the need to ensure that contracts do not negate the enjoyment of copyright exceptions such as the 2002 Act (see page 8, section 6 of the Government response

"that unnecessary restrictions removed by copyright exceptions are not re-imposed by other means, such as contractual terms, in such a way as to undermine the benefits of the exception")

3.4. Private copying / format-shifting

We agree with Recommendation 5 on private copying. New "access technology" such as text-to-speech screen-readers can open new ways to access information for blind and partially sighted people. However, to take full advantage of this technology, blind and partially sighted people often need to be able to move an electronic work from one device to another. For instance, a blind user might want to download an ebook from their PC to a portable "Braillenote" machine which provides a refreshable Braille display. Such legitimate activity should not be criminalised by the IP system when carried out with a legally acquired work and for personal use.

3.5 "Widest possible exceptions"

The Government response to Hargreaves states that "the Government agrees with the Review’s central thesis that the widest possible exceptions to copyright within the existing EU framework are likely to be beneficial to the UK" (point 6, page 7).

RNIB is not ideological about copyright exceptions. We do, however, believe they have a place in helping to alleviate the "book famine", and we look forward to hearing more about how the Government will further this objective.

3.6 Technological protection measures

We believe that the UK should consider ways to more effectively implement Article 6(4) of the EU Information Society directive ("Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (2001/29/EC)") which allows EU Member States to ensure that Technological Protection Measures ("TPMs") do not block blind and partially sighted people’s access to legally-acquired content. 1

At present some TPMs which are designed to prevent unlawful copying also affect lawful uses of the material. Many publishers lock their accessible e-books inside TPMs to prevent unlawful copying. In many cases, the particular TPM applied also locks out access by screen reader "access technology", so that the TPM stops a blind person from being able to read a book that they have legally bought.

The present system in the UK puts the onus on an individual to make a complaint to the Secretary of State should their lawful access to a work under a copyright exception or limitation be impeded by a TPM. (See the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, SI 2003/2498 section 296ZE). RNIB believes this is not a practical remedy. We would like to see more emphasis put on service providers to ensure that TPMs do not disable screen-reading access technology.

3.7 Improving international IP law

The Government report acknowledges the need to work internationally in order to improve IP law and to achieve reforms at key international IP institutions. It is worth noting that no less a figure than Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO said this year at the London Book Fair that a global economy requires global intellectual property laws. We agree, and feel that this applies to copyright exceptions as much as to enforcement.

3.8 Need for an international copyright treaty for print disabled people

RNIB believes there is a need for an international copyright exception for accessible information for blind and partially sighted people and others with a print disability. In the UK the Copyright (VIP) Act 2002 is working very well. Similar legislation exists in other countries. However it is not possible for those countries to share accessible books made using these national exceptions. This wastes scarce resources that could be better used to make accessible books available.

For example, when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book two) by J.K. Rowling was published the English speaking blind people’s organisations around the world had to produce five separate national braille master files and eight separate national Daisy audio master files. With an international copyright exception for print disabled people, these organisations could have avoided the unnecessary use of financial and production resources for this duplication, by sharing a master file. That would have allowed them to produce a further four Braille titles and a further seven Daisy audio titles for sharing around the world.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) makes treaties and other international laws on intellectual property rights such as copyright and patents, and is the body that could solve this legal problem. To that end, the World Blind Union, assisted by copyright experts, drafted a proposal for a treaty to provide better access to published works which Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay tabled at WIPO in 2009.

The WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), which meets twice a year, have in the last two years considered this and other proposals to address the matter. At its latest meeting in June 2011, various WIPO Member States including the EU devised a consolidated draft text ("SCCR22/16/PROV.1") which RNIB believes could, subject to some minor modifications, be a good basis for a new international copyright treaty.

An international copyright exception, embodied in a WIPO treaty, would increase the total amounts of works available to blind, partially sighted and print disabled people living in the UK. For example, the organisation Bookshare in the USA1 has roughly 100,000 accessible books which registered print disabled readers can access in the USA. Bookshare’s titles are accessible here through Bookshare’s UK internet portal. However, half of Bookshare’s titles were made in the USA thanks to its national copyright exception for print disabled people. That exception –like all copyright exceptions –is national and therefore stops at the USA’s borders. Blind members of Bookshare in the UK cannot therefore currently access the half of Bookshare’s titles made thanks to the USA copyright exception. If the treaty were law now, they would be able to do so immediately and have access to around another 50,000 titles.

Despite the benefits of the proposed treaty, and the fact that over 100 WIPO Member States support it, the EU has been opposed to a binding treaty at WIPO, calling instead for a soft law "recommendation". This contrasts with its support for treaties to further protect copyright holders, and seems to indicate a willingness to offer a second class solution to disabled people. RNIB urges the UK to play a leading role within the EU Council in calling for the EU to fully respect the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and support a binding treaty at WIPO for print disabled people.

3.9 Economic growth / participation of disabled people

RNIB notes that a key aim of the Hargreaves review was to see how Intellectual Property law could be improved to better support a flourishing UK economy. RNIB would like to underline our belief that the UK needs all parts of society to have full access to information in order to benefit fully from a good education and to be able to contribute to the economy. At this time of economic hardship the UK can least afford to exclude people from playing their part to revive the economy. RNIB therefore believes that addressing the concerns we outline above is not just a matter of social inclusion, but one of relevance to the UK’s future economic wellbeing.