The amended act will make it mandatory to have licences to reproduce copyrighted work in any format — even it is meant for the use of persons suffering from visual, aural, or other disability.
The Union government has made the right to education a fundamental right; but almost 70 million print-disabled people will find it difficult to access textbooks and other study material if the government amends the Copyright Act, 1957.
The amended act will make it mandatory to have licences to reproduce copyrighted work in any format — even it is meant for the use of persons suffering from visual, aural, or other disability.
The amended proposal may be introduced in Parliament in the current budget session, Dr Sam Taraporevala, director of the Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), said at a press conference on Thursday. He said the government should reconsider changing the act.
“There are a few proposed amendments,” Kanchan Pamnani, visually impaired advocate and solicitor, said. “But this will make our life more difficult.” Citing her experience while she was studying law, Pamnani said a plethora of reference books had to be unbound and scanned for her to study. “It was a back-breaking job because such books ran into thousands of pages.”
If the act is changed, an organisation working for the disabled will have to apply for a licence from the copyright board before reproducing any copyrighted text.
The process of accessing available material will become more tedious, she said. “If somebody in Kolkata has already scanned the reference material why should I have to do it again here?”
Print disability, apart from the blind, applies to those suffering from dyslexia and cerebral palsy. “When I was doing my MBA, I spent most of my time searching for reference material that could be accessed in a format I could read,” Ketan Kothari of Sightsavers International said. “Braille is cumbersome and expensive. Now, there are formats that can convert text to audio.”
Of the 70 million disabled people in the country, 20 million were children, Eliabeth Kurian, regional director of Sightsavers International, said. “Their right to education will not be a reality if the act is changed.”
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}