Study On Copyright Exceptions For The Benefit Of The Visually Impaired

There are about285million visually impaired people worldwide, and most of them areconcentrated in developing countries. While among all the books published each year, lessthan5%are provided in accessible version for the visually impaired. Some internationalorganizations have long been into the study of copyright exceptions and limitations for thevisually impaired people, and some related treaties were adopted, and there are more detailedprovisions about this area in the copyright law of many developed countries. Our currentcopyright law does not pay enough attention to the interest of the visually impaired, and theworks used by them under the copyright exceptions cannot guaranteed on the legislative level,while at the same time, very few scholars did academic research in this area.Literature research methods was mainly used in this paper. First, we analyzed the valueand function of the fair use system directed to the visually impaired, and discussed the natureof fair use, the specificity and necessity of the fair use system for visually impaired people,thus provided a theoretical basis for this system. Secondly, we compared different regulationson the international level, including copyright exceptions and limitations for the visuallyimpaired in the most important international intellectual property treaties and domestic law ofseveral developed countries. Through the assessment and comparison of the copyrightexceptions for the visually impaired, we accumulated advanced experience for our copyrightlaw. Finally, we pointed out the inadequacies of our specific exceptions for the visuallyimpaired and made some recommendations for it by drawing on the research results ofinternational organizations and developed countries in this field. We analyzed through threeaspects, namely subject, object and action, including the scope of the end beneficiary, therestrictions on who may undertake the activity, the works that may be used, the accessibleformats, the permitted or restricted acts covered, the profit or non-profit activity, the importand export of accessible copies made under exceptions and the interplay with DRMs.