EFF announces that accessibility will be severely compromised due to copyright modification of TPP

ByGlobalTradeWatch

"Aim for high liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region, comprehensive agreement including non-tariff fields and new trade agenda"The Pacific Rim Partnership (TPP) Agreement currently being negotiated in 12 countries. As a final stage of the negotiations, a ministerial meeting began in Hawaii, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is showing concern that accessibility to content will be greatly impaired by changes in the copyright decision by TPP .

TPP Undermines User Control and That's Disastrous for Accessibility | Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/tpp-undermines-user-control-and-thats-disastrous-accessibility


In the TPP negotiations, talks are being made in the fields of trade, medical care, environment, etc., and in the field of "copyright (intellectual property)". It is a story to unify this though there is a difference in whether the copyright is a parental admission in each country now and the protection period is several years.

The negotiation is already in the final stage, the copyright protection period is 70 years after the death of the copyright owner, the copyright infringement is a policy to become a non-petty offense appealed by the investigative authorities and the general public without appeal of the copyright owner It is reported that.

TPP: "To copyright" settled "70 years after death" and "non-parental guilt" - Mainichi Newspapers
http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20150728k0000m020060000c.html

Although such a move aims to strengthen the protection of the copyright, according to the EFF, it is said that strengthening protection will cause serious damage to disabled people.

Companies that produce and sell books, movies, software, etc. do not consider much about whether the disabled person can handle the content or whether there is an alternative format. In the case of books,World Blind UnionIs written in an accessible format that can be read by the visually impaired or reading disabled people (printed matter · can not read printed letters) among the books published in the world as expressed as "book shortage" There are only less than 5% of the books that are in the poor country, and less than 1% of them are available in poor countries. Also, even if it is in an accessible format, there are many things that overseas things can not be used because there is no unified format.

If it is a movie, if subtitles are attached with DVD or Blu-ray, even deaf people can understand the story, but even if I think that "I want to enlarge because the character is small" because the output is restricted by DRM , I can not fulfill my purpose.

Therefore, at the World Intellectual Property Organization, in June 2013, in order to prevent people with disabilities from becoming inaccessible to knowledge,Marrakesh Treaty for Promoting Access to Publications of the Blind, Visually Impaired and Reading Disabled"Was adopted. This is a historical treaty for the "barrier freeing of books", individuals and authorized organizations can make necessary changes to make the copyrighted work in an accessible form under the Convention, beneficiary On the premise that only those who can use it, copying is allowed without permission of the author.

[Press Release] Adopt historical treaties. Accelerate access to the books of the world's visually impaired.
http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/ja/offices/japan/news/2013/news_0036.html


However, strong lobbying activities were developed, and in the Marrakesh Treaty, "Audio Visual" related movies and games were omitted from the subject. In other words, hearing impaired people have blocked access to the content. The establishment of the TPP is such as to overtake it.

EFF points out that the truly dangerous point of TPP is creating a more copyright-friendly environment, and thereby getting away from the public interest. The Marrakesh Convention is in the form of sacrificing non-visually impaired people in order to win the accessibility exceptions "can change the copyrighted work", but in order to protect people's rights from barriers created by copyright The Marrakesh Convention alone is not enough.

Although the content of the copyright area of ​​TPP seems not to come up to this point, there are talks that "apology gold business" was born in South Korea due to non-petitioning, and treatment of secondary creations including Comiket also care Where to become.

"Apology claims" frequently occurred with copyright infringement violations occurred frequently, put a hold on the complaint bomb! "Cho Jun-hee" Korea on the Web ""
http://pc.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/column/20090306/1012908/


We can not keep an eye on the news for a while, including the point that the talk is being advanced without considering the accessibility for people with disabilities.