BLINDSA and SECTION27 made submissions on the Copyright Amendment Bill which was presented before the National Council of Provinces on 27 January 2023. This follows the 21 September 2022 Constitutional Court victory where the Court, declared the Copyright Act of 1978 unconstitutional and invalid because it limits access to literary and artistic works in accessible formats.
The Court granted an immediate exception to copyright for persons with disabilities, allowing them to convert literary and artistic works into accessible formats without obtaining authorisation from the copyright holder.
Previously, people with disabilities needed to get authorisation from copyright holders to convert books into formats they could read, as a result of the Copyright Act of 1978. The Constitutional Court has now removed this requirement. This opens the door for persons with disabilities, improving access to books and other printed published works.
One of recommendations by the two organisations are that ‘the definition of ‘accessible format copy’ as in the Constitutional Court crafted remedy be adopted as it is in line with the Marrakesh VIP Treaty.
Read the full submissions here:
0 Comments