Daily Alert

Marrakesh

Bill C-11 received royal asset yesterday. The Bill, An Act to amend the Copyright Act (access to copyrighted works or other subject-matter for persons with perceptual disabilities), implements provisions of the Marrakesh Treaty.

The Marrakesh Treaty To Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled (see earlier blog post) is directed to providing copyright protected materials in format accessible to the visually impaired. It will come into force once 20 countries have ratified the treaty (currently 17 have, according to WIPO).

Bill C-11 (link) provides adds further activities which are not infringement of copyright, various further exceptions (to the exceptions) and related changes:

(a) reproduce a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability;
(a.‍1) fix a performer’s performance of a literary, musical, artistic or dramatic work, other than a cinematographic work, in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability;
(a.‍2) reproduce a sound recording, or a fixation of a performer’s performance referred to in paragraph (a.‍1), in a format specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability;
This is the second bill that had been introduced to make these amendments: Bill C-65 was introduced and died on the order paper in June 2015.