China to introduce Marrakech Treaty

Visually impaired to get more access to copyrighted reading materials

The visually impaired in China will have better access to reading materials, including foreign texts, as the Marrakech Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, takes effect on May 5.

The document will become active three months after China delivered its ratification papers to the World Intellectual Property Organization on Feb 5.

The only international human rights treaty on copyright currently has 88 signatories, according to the WIPO.

It imposes a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions on traditional copyright laws to benefit people who are visually impaired, who have reading or learning disabilities or who are unable to hold or manipulate a book.

Under the treaty, authorized entities will be permitted, without the authorization of the copyright holder, to make an accessible copy of a work for exclusive use on a nonprofit basis.

The treaty also set rules on international exchanges to enable foreign texts to be offered in accessible formats to beneficiaries or authorized entities.

China participated in the drafting and advocacy process and signed the treaty on June 28, 2013, when it was adopted in Marrakech. It entered into force on September 30, 2016.

In November 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, passed a comprehensive amendment to the Copyright Law after nearly 10 years' preparation, and the revised law was enacted in June last year.

It added provisions applicable to the treaty, demonstrating that the country had taken a substantial step toward ratification and implementation, said Yang Yang, an associate research fellow at the Assistive Technology Research Institute at the China Braille Press in Beijing and chief author of a report about the treaty's implementation.

For example, the amendment extended beneficiaries of copyright exceptions from the visually impaired using Braille to people with dyslexia and other reading disabilities. It also expanded the number of ways people can benefit, from transliteration and publication of a work in Braille to any accessible means.

With the necessary legal conditions and institutional preparation in place, the Standing Committee of the NPC ratified the treaty in October.

As the only publisher of its kind in China, the China Braille Press published about 1,000 books a year between 2016 to 2020, the majority being policy introductions and reviews, and textbooks for compulsory and vocational education.

Other books have included classics of literature and history, bestsellers and Braille scores, Yang said, adding that the publishing house's output only meets the basic needs of the visually impaired due to personnel and financial constraints.

Apart from regular editing, the printing house has to transliterate Chinese into Braille, and proofreading requires the cooperation of both blind and sighted editors.

Chinese Braille is based on pinyin, so a book of around 300 pages and about 200,000 Chinese characters, can end up as thick as three volumes.

Braille books are printed on kraft paper and must be specially packaged for mailing, which makes publishing them costly. Nevertheless, copyright constraints remain the biggest challenge.

Ideally, editors are able to convert Chinese into Braille using transliteration software if they have the Word or TXT files at hand, but more often than not, they are forced to transcribe and input the Braille themselves because publishers hesitate to provide access, due to copyright concerns.

The situation is worse with audiobooks and large-print books, as copyright-holders and publishers are worried that their sales will be affected.

The printing house needs authorization to make these formats accessible. Some publishers, in cooperating with the printers, demand that large-print versions only be made available through libraries and not put on sale, while others refuse cooperation, according to Yang.

The house is also exploring ways to jointly publish audiobooks with copyright holders.

For example, while they would provide the works to the visually impaired for free, their partners would be able to sell them.

For audiobooks and accessible films and TV series that offer scene narration, sign language or subtitles, the house has to purchase the copyright, but limited funds have kept it from accessing the latest audiobooks and movies.

Yang said the treaty has a broad definition of accessible formats that enjoy copyright exceptions, which will likely lower costs for publishing houses as they seek to gain access to more works, and beneficiaries will have more ways to satisfy their needs. At the same time, beneficiaries of the treaty are obliged to protect copyright by not sharing content to reassure copyright holders.

She added that the National Copyright Administration is working to formulate implementation rules for the treaty in China.

"I expect the implementation of the treaty will meet our reading needs," said He Chuan, vice-chairman of the China Association of the Blind.

He stressed that by definition, the treaty involves not only formal publications, but other materials publicly available in any media.

Visually impaired himself, He is also director of the Center for Information Accessibility at the China Braille Library.

He used the challenges visually impaired students with university aspirations face as an example, as they may want to take the national college or postgraduate entrance examinations to attend a regular university, rather than entering the special education system. The implementation of the treaty may make it easier for them to acquire Braille versions of study materials for the exams, he said.

Moreover, Yang suggested that public libraries be authorized by the government to produce and distribute accessible format copies and take measures to guarantee their exclusive, nonprofit use, as is the case in countries such as the United States, Russia and Japan.

The Zhejiang Library, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is one of the rare public libraries in China able to produce Braille copies, audiobooks and accessible movies on their own.

They use character recognition technology and Braille transliteration software to edit and proofread works upon reader request.

The library produces around 20 Braille books and a dozen accessible movies annually to about 50 visually impaired readers who visit regularly, according to Xu Jin, director of the library's stack room management and reading services department.

Xu said that public libraries should be key resources for visually impaired readers and hoped the implementation of the treaty would shorten the time needed to produce accessible format copies of publications.

He also called on the China Braille Press and China Braille Library to better promote and clarify copyright limitations and exceptions, legal boundaries, how domestic law lines up with the treaty, and their experience publishing for the visually impaired.