Vol. 467 No. 1
286 Miss M. Wallace asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the plans, if any, he has to review the copyright law in order to introduce a requirement that published material be available in a form readable to people with significant visual impairments. [12511/96]
The Deputy will be aware that my Department is currently involved in completing a comprehensive review of Irish copyright law and that the issue of published material being made available in a form readable to people with significant visual impairments forms part of that review. The outcome of the review will be seen in new copyright legislation which will attempt to balance the rights of owners and users taking into account our international obligations under the Berne Convention on literacy and artistic works.
Article 9.1 of the convention provides for authors the exclusive right to authorise the reproduction of their works in any manner or form and only allows members of the convention to permit reproduction of works in certain special cases provided that such reproduction does not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author. My Department is currently examining this issue with a view to seeing if we can draft some legislative provisions which will enable copyright owners and users live within the terms of this provision of the convention. In the digital age it is not easy to see what solution can be reached but I am confident that a settlement fair to all interested parties will be arrived at. The Deputy will also be aware of contacts between publishers and groups representing the visually impaired which have taken place in an effort to ensure that the latter group are in no way deprived of access to literary material. It is my understanding that these contacts go back some time and that the publishers are keen to facilitate access to works by all sectors of the community whilst maintaining control over their exclusive private property right to permit or prohibit reproductions of works and their ability to control the use of digital copies of their work. I would urge both parties to these discussions to negotiate in a full and frank manner and endeavour to come to an equitable solution to this difficult problem as agreed solutions will always be preferable to legislative dictate.
