Marrakesh VIP Treaty, a treaty on copyright, was adopted on June 28, 2013 in Marrakesh, Morocco. India, ratifying the treaty on 24 June 2014 at the 28th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Acts in Geneva, became the first nation to do so. Since then, 21 countries have followed suit. Much to everyone’s delight, the treaty has come into force on the 30th of September 2016.

It is not uncommon for the blind to endure hardships reading a printed book. Indeed, there are Braille books available all across the world to help the visually impaired, but not without its own troubles. The previous Copyright Laws did not offer much in this regard.
Indian Copyright Act of 1957 had no provision to facilitate the production and distribution of books in formats accessible to print-impaired readers. While the practice of converting books into Braille format did exist, doing so was not easy. Obtaining permission from publishers, authors is never an easy task, especially when money and other monetary benefits are involved.

With the Treaty coming into force, books can now be produced in Braille and other formats by organisations that cater to print-impaired readers, without seeking permissions from the publishers or the copyright holders. Further, it also allows Indian organisations to borrow books in accessible formats from libraries and other institutional holdings across the world. Beyond question, an exceedingly significant and grinning effect. In India, where policies take ages to get implemented, this one has already come into effect.

Books existing in an accessible format in another part of the world can now be loaned to an Indian organisation, without them having to go through the trouble of making a copy. Accessible Books Consortium (ABC), established by WIPO in June 2014, has already realised this vision. ABC has a centralised electronic multilingual catalogue of accessible books produced by libraries from across the world for the blind. This helps in countries accessing books available in other parts of the world. Nineteen libraries for the blind from 16 countries are already part of it.

In August this year, India launched Sugamya Pustakalaya, the largest collection of online accessible books available in the country. Once Sugamya Pustakalaya becomes part of ABC, many more visually impaired readers in India would have access to books from across the world, in different languages.
At a time when laws pertaining to Intellectual Property are being used as a tool to make the essential commodities costlier and further the divide between the upper class and the middle class, the Marrakesh Treaty, can be seen as the means in which the Intellectual Property laws can be used to make the world more kind, just, unprejudiced and humane.

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