WASHINGTON DC (January 29, 2019) — Prepared Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa at the National Federation of the Blind Washington Seminar on the Marrakesh Treaty and the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act
Thank you for the invitation to be with you. It means much to me that you’ve asked me to speak at this Great Gathering-In meeting. I especially want to say hi to those of you who made the trip from my home state of Iowa. The National Federation of the Blind’s issues are important to me. I’ve been engaged with your concerns since I was in the Iowa Legislature and I always welcome you to meet with me and my staff about them.
Thank you for this wonderful award that I’ve just received. I’ve been a legislator for many years, both at the state and federal level. Yet it still thrills me to be a part of a successful legislative effort, in particular one that makes such a tremendous difference to so many people.
So I’ve been asked to speak about the Marrakesh Treaty and the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act, I worked on in the last Congress when I was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This was legislation that I felt strongly about. We were able to reach an agreement after several years of hard work. The Treaty was finally ratified by the Senate and the implementing legislation passed late last year.
As many of you know, the Treaty was negotiated and concluded under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (known as “WIPO”). The treaty concluded at Marrakesh, Morocco on June 28, 2013, and was signed by the United States on October 2, 2013.
The intent behind the Treaty was to facilitate access to printed works for persons with print disabilities. There’s a global shortage of print materials in accessible formats such as braille, digital braille, large print, specialized audio files, and other alternative formats. The Treaty helps address this “book famine” problem for blind and visually impaired individuals all over the world.
And while the United States enjoys significant production of accessible format copies for the American blind community, the ability to share such copies across borders expands opportunities for blind people in America and all around the world. This is particularly valuable for blind and visually-impaired Americans who read and learn in languages other than English and those who need specialized works, such as scholarly texts for graduate work in American universities.
The Treaty addresses this problem by making clear that copyright protection shouldn’t impede the creation and distribution of such accessible format copies. It does this while including safeguards that protect the rights of the materials’ creators and distributors. Importantly, the treaty fosters the international exchange of accessible copies of printed material.
According to the Treaty, every country is required to provide an exception or limitation in their national copyright law for the creation and distribution of accessible format copies for the exclusive use of blind and other print-disabled persons, subject to international obligations. The Treaty also requires countries to permit the exchange across borders of accessible format copies made under such national law exceptions for the use of blind in other countries that are parties to the treaty.
At the same time, the Treaty provides assurances to authors and publishers that the system won’t expose their published works to misuse or distribution to anyone other than the intended beneficiaries. It also reiterates the requirement that the cross-border sharing of accessible format copies of works will be limited to certain special cases which don’t conflict with the normal use of the work and don’t unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rights-holder.
Everyone would agree with the Marrakesh Treaty’s worthy goals. Consequently the Treaty and the implementing legislation would have a glide-path to getting done quickly, right? Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. There was much discussion among stakeholders, but agreement couldn’t be reached on how to implement the Treaty.
Finally, in February 2016, the Obama Administration submitted the Treaty and its implementation to the US Senate.
But there still was no consensus on a legislative package to implement the United States’ obligations under the Treaty. Concerns were expressed by stakeholders with the approach taken by the Obama Administration. There were concerns that there wasn’t enough accountability and that the rules would be gamed. There were concerns that the rules would change and libraries would be burdened with additional regulatory requirements. There were concerns that the interests of rights-holders were not adequately protected. Others saw an opportunity to bring up issues beyond what the Treaty was trying to accomplish.
The bottom line was that the sides couldn’t agree. And Senators were concerned with moving the Treaty before an agreement had been reached on the implementing legislation. You need to have pretty wide-spread consensus in order to move a bill in the Senate.
This was disheartening. But because this was such a worthy endeavor, Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations encouraged the National Federation of the Blind, the Library Copyright Alliance and the Association of American Publishers to negotiate and propose language that could be supported by all interested stakeholders including the copyright community, public interest groups, the US Patent and Trademark Office and the US Copyright Office.
And the National Federation of the Blind sprung into action, at the federal level, and at the state level. To the credit of a number of individuals here in DC — to name a few who closely collaborated with me: John Pare, Scott LaBarre and Gabe Cazares, as well as Loyola Law School Professor Justin Hughes — the National Federation of the Blind was instrumental in bringing all sides together. Your engagement helped to creatively reach a consensus not just with respect to the legislative text that implements the Treaty, but also the legislative history for the bill’s committee report.
This effort was supported and ultimately succeeded because of the close working relationship between the Chairmen and Ranking Members of both Committees of jurisdiction in the Senate. Foreign Relations, with jurisdiction over treaties, and Judiciary with jurisdiction over copyright law. We worked hand in hand on a bipartisan basis, to move the bill. The staff worked with the House to ensure that there weren’t any problems there. The State Department, the US Patent and Trademark Office, and the US Copyright Office were informed and available for consultation to avoid any last minute hiccups.
So on March 15, 2018 we introduced S. 2559, the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act, the consensus product of these negotiations and vetting with stakeholders within the publishers, libraries and print disabilities communities.
The bill made modest adjustments to U.S. copyright law. The Treaty is based on current US copyright law that provides an exception or limitation for the creation and distribution of accessible format copies for the exclusive use of blind and other print-disabled persons. The implementing legislation broadened the scope of accessible works to include previously published musical works, refined the definition of eligible persons, and created a new section in the Copyright Act to deal with the export and import of accessible format copies.
Both the Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees moved swiftly and in tandem on the Treaty and the implementing bill. In April 2018, both Committees held hearings on the Treaty and bill. In May 2018, the Judiciary Committee passed the bill by a vote of 20-0. The Foreign Relations Committee marked up the Treaty shortly thereafter.
And on June 28, 2018, the Treaty and the bill passed the Senate. On September 25 the House of Representatives passed the bill and the President signed it on October 9, 2018.
We’re waiting for some last steps with the Treaty. It still needs to be deposited in Geneva. I’m hopeful that this will happen soon. I cannot stress that this Treaty and this bill wouldn’t have become law but for the incredible efforts on the part of all of you — the National Federation of the Blind — at the national and state level, who worked tirelessly to bring together the Association of American Publishers and the Library Copyright Alliance. Your work raised the profile of this issue with your representatives here in the House and Senate. We would not be here today without your efforts.
I think that this Treaty and bill are a model of how we can accomplish great things and get legislation done at a time when partisan logjams have taken over a large part of our government.
In conclusion, I thank you for your warm reception. I want to thank Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, for his leadership. Thank you to a number of Iowans who helped greatly: Dr. Marc Maurer, the Immediate Past President of the National Federation of the Blind, and his spouse, Patricia Maurer, also Scott Van Gorp, President, National Federation of the Blind Iowa, and Janae Burgmeier, Legislative Director, National Federation of the Blind of Iowa. Thank you to all the other Iowans here. I look forward to seeing you in my office soon. One last grateful thank you all for your good work.
