EUAIN - the adaptive content network

A key deliverable of EUAIN was to examine the extent to which the provisions of Article 6.4.1 of Directive 29/2001/EC (the European Copyright Directive) have been effective.
The document "suggestions for improving access to books" is available in (pdf) and (txt) versions.

Article 6.4.1 reads:
"Notwithstanding the legal protection provided for in paragraph 1, in the absence of voluntary measures taken by rightholders, including agreements between rightholders and other parties concerned, Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that rightholders make available to the beneficiary of an exception or limitation provided for in national law in accordance with (...) (3)(b) (...) the means of benefiting from that exception or limitation, to the extent necessary to benefit from that exception or limitation and where that beneficiary has legal access to the protected work or subject-matter concerned."

The aim of that Article is to ensure that the rights granted by copyright exceptions to (inter alia) people with reading related disabilities are not negated by technological protection measures (TPM).

To this end, the intended goal of the Directive is best described in recital (43): It is in any case important for the Member States to adopt all necessary measures to facilitate access to works by persons suffering from a disability which constitutes an obstacle to the use of the works themselves, and to pay particular attention to accessible formats. This is to be completed by the limitation itself (Article 5.2.(b)) uses, for the benefit of people with a disability, which are directly related to the disability and of a non-commercial nature, to the extent required by the specific disability.

The report concludes that access problems undoubtedly exist, but that it is too early to draw firm conclusions on the effectiveness of Article 6.4.1. No relevant case law has been identified, and indeed the provisions made by most Member States in transposing of the Article are not well known even to those who might benefit from them. Furthermore, the effect of the Article 6.4.4 is likewise untested.

Based on the final outcome of the deliverable, the following recommendations are made to the European Commission and to other stakeholders.

The issues which have been identified can be divided in 2 main categories:

1. ACCESS TO PRINTED WORKS

2. ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC WORKS

Access to printed works

1. Permission to scan the actual book to produce an accessible format
   Solution 1. to develop voluntary agreements between rights holders (publishers) and institutions representing/serving reading disabled persons.
   Solution 2. to designate one trusted repository where publishers can deposit their books and which will serve as a hub for institutions representing/serving reading disabled persons.

2. Providing the electronic file which was used for printing the book.
   Solution 1. to develop voluntary agreements between rights holders (publishers) and institutions representing/serving reading disabled persons.
   Solution 2. to designate one trusted repository where publishers can deposit their books and which will serve as a hub for institutions representing/serving reading disabled persons.

Access to electronic works

1. Non accessible/adaptable electronic books protected by Technical Protection Measures
   Solution 1. to develop voluntary agreements between rights holders (publishers) and institutions representing/serving reading disabled persons.
   Solution 2. to designate one trusted repository where publishers can deposit their books and which will serve as a hub for institutions representing/serving reading disabled persons.

2. Accessible/adaptable electronic books protected by TPMs
   1. Accessible/adaptable electronic books protected by TPMs which prevent reading disabled persons to 'read’ the book.
   Solution 1. to encourage publishers to label these books.
   Solution 2. to work with publishers to see how TPMs impede the access for reading disabled persons and to change these features of the TPMs.
   Solution 3. to designate one trusted repository where publishers can deposit their books and which will serve as a hub for institutions representing/serving reading disabled persons.
   2. Accessible/adaptable electronic books protected by TPMs which do not prevent reading disabled persons to 'read’ the book.
   Solution 1. properly label the work and put the necessary information on the web site so all potential users of the book know what they are or are not permitted to do.

3. Accessible/adaptable electronic books not protected by TPMs
   Solution 1. do nothing.
   As the copyright exceptions (5.3.b.) have been implemented in all EU countries and though while acting as a strong incentive to find consensual solutions, they are not seen as the ultimate solution, it is proposed that the Commission develops guidelines to encourage rights holders and institutions representing reading disabled persons to find the best ways to make most of the information accessible to all.

Proposed guidelines

These guidelines should be based on the following principles:

1. To achieve what should be the common goal of both publishers and institutions representing disabled persons, supported by the EU institutions and their respective Member States, the collaboration between all stakeholders is an absolute key issue and can be enhanced.
2. In the absence of accessible/adaptable books, publishers should be encouraged to make their content accessible through trusted third parties (ideally one per country, maybe more when languages are not homogenous within a country). To this end, they should either permit the trusted third party to digitise the book and make it available, against remuneration if jointly agreed, to reading disabled persons within extranets, or they should be providing the electronic file which has been used by the printer, to facilitate access to reading disabled persons within extranets.
3. The same applies to electronic books which would be published in a non-accessible/adaptable version; the publishers should be encouraged to provide the electronic file to a trusted third party, which in turn will provide access to reading disabled persons within extranets.

Practical suggestions
But the real goal, likely to be achievable in the digital world, is to make the majority of books published accessible/adaptable from the outset so that reading disabled persons have access to virtually all books when they are published. They will no longer need to access them through institutions serving reading disabled persons but will directly acquire them through online retailers or high street booksellers. It is foreseen that libraries will retain an important role in the digital world and that as recommended in the 2001 Copyright in the information society Directive in recital 40. 'Therefore, specific contracts or licences should be promoted which, without creating imbalances, favour such establishments and the disseminative purposes they serve’.

How can the EU practically support such a goal? We offer the following suggestions:

• Encourage publishers and expert bodies to pursue their fruitful dialogue.
• Support the work of the EUAIN Network to be established as an autonomous, not-for-profit foundation which can build upon this solid dialogue.
• Involve the software developers in the dialogue encouraging to propose the development of publishing software better adapted to the needs of reading disabled persons and delivering high performance workflows for the publishing industry.
• Work on common European standards for conversion software which could then be used by publishers, wether or not in connection with TPMs or rather Digital Rights Management (which will allow an indefinite number of business models inclusive of all users).
• Encourage the publishing industry to work closely with expert bodies to ensure that all accessibility guidelines in the design of digital material are followed as a matter of course. This includes for example encouraging publishers to properly tag their books so they can be accessed by all without third party intervention (it is understood that this will not apply to some books which are too complex for publishers and will always require the intervention of a specialist agency).
• Encourage the Member States to designate one trusted third party, when not yet in existence, to which the publishers could provide their books or, even better, electronic files upon request, to be adapted/made accessible for reading disabled persons. In agreements between parties, we recommend that priority be given to developing technical solutions such as: a) provision of an encryption key to the trusted third party; b) developing watermarking and fingerprinting techniques; c) creating extranets such as web sites accessible only to authorised people, where access could be tailored to individual users' needs.
• In addition, these trusted third parties could serve as partners in drawing comprehensive and straightforward voluntary agreements at national level (eventually with some input of the EU) to facilitate the prompt resolution of any TPM-related access difficulties which may from time to time arise.
• The Commission could set the example in preparing guidelines to help all parties (publishers, consumers, legislators and the judiciary in each member state) to determine the best way of resolving conflicts which may arise. Such guidelines should seek to reduce national differences.
• Develop services such as Publisher LookUp, developed by the Association of American Publishers. This facility designates an individual in each publishing company who can deal with requests for access from people unable to access the standard version of a work. This must be done bearing in mind the size of publishing companies in Europe.
• In the absence of accessible/adaptable version and in the case of TPMs preventing use of conversion software, labelling schemes for products endowed with DRM should be developed. Any labelling scheme should be used to indicate clearly how the bona fide beneficiary of an exception can gain ready access to the material in question, whether that is through the publisher or through technological means.
  Keep monitoring the issue to eventually review the situation also in view of the development of the digital market place. This will need to be backed up by further research, including not only surveys but also activities such as workshops with all stakeholders. The Commission should consider series of workshops around Europe to increase awareness and understanding and promote best practice.

• Develop legislation on taxation issues to provide an incentive to publish an increasing number of books accessible to reading disabled persons (such as the possible technical adaptation of Annex 3 of the 6th VAT Directive.