Implementing the Marrakesh Treaty in Latin America: A Look at the Experiences of Four CC Community Members
Summary
Adopted at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2013, the Marrakesh Treaty’s main goal is to create a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions for the benefit of the blind, visually impaired, and otherwise print disabled (VIPs). In this blog post, four members of the Creative Commons Global Network, Virginia Inés Simón, Carina Patrón, Carolina Botero and Mariana Valente share their successes and challenges in the practical implementation of the provisions of the Marrakesh Treaty in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Brazil, respectively. In this context, the “BIDYA Project” (for “Digital Accessible Library”, in Spanish) was developed in 2016 by the Núcleo REAA (Interdisciplinary working group on open educational resources (OER) of the Universidad de la República) and the National Blind Union. The BIDYA project consisted in several stages that covered different aspects that the Marrakesh Treaty and the national law required as part of the regulation, for example, the adaptation of materials in accessible formats, cross-border exchange and the establishment of authorized entities. To the extent that an exception or limitation, articulated in national law through the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty or otherwise, allows adaptations necessary to make material accessible to VIPs, that activity is exempt from the restrictions of the ND condition.