The Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Bill will amend
existing UK copyright legislation to make special allowances for
the visually impaired, allowing the conversion of material to an
alternative format without infringing copyright.
The difficulty for the visually impaired of “discovering
information on the internet” is among a list of examples given by
Rachel Squire, the MP in charge of the Bill, as a catalyst for the
relaxation in copyright law. Other examples include problems of
learning in the classroom, enjoying books for leisure and
discovering the latest news.
Under the new law, single accessible copies of a work may be
made by or on behalf of a visually impaired person for their
personal use without first seeking the permission of the copyright
owners and without infringement of copyright.
The Bill also makes provision for multiple accessible copies to
be made for and distributed to visually impaired people without
seeking the permission of the right holders, although this right is
restricted to educational and not for profit organisations.
There are restrictions on the new rights. For example, if a DVD
has been made with technical anti-copying protections, any
accessible copies supplied to visually impaired people must equally
be protected by those measures. The Bill does not say how the
technical measures are to be overcome to make the accessible copies
in the first place – an issue which is left to the EU’s Copyright
Directive.
