[Scoop note: The Government's 6/5/16 announcement was regarding the end of submissions rather than a decision to sign the treaty. The matter has yet to be decided by cabinet.]

PANZ welcomes Government’s signatory to the Marrakesh Treaty

The Publishers Association of New Zealand welcomes the government’s decision to become a signatory to the Marrakesh Treaty, which promises significantly more access to books for New Zealanders with a print disability.

Publishers build their business in New Zealand and around the world by packaging the stories of authors and artists into formats that the world can buy and read—cloth and paper, ebooks and audiobooks, and much more. And through our commitment to Epub3 standards for ebooks, to audiobooks and large print formats, we hope that more and more print disabled readers will be able to buy books in the formats that they need.

But that isn’t the case right now, and publishers have a strong relationships with the Blind Foundation of New Zealand and work cooperatively with the Foundation as it uses Section 69 of the Copyright Act to create formats for people with a print disability when there is no commercial solution available. We have also backed the TIGAR project, which has pioneered the transfer of accessible files across borders.

PANZ president Melanie Laville-Moore comments: “We welcome the Marrakesh Treaty as a way of enhancing access for the reading disabled while respecting the importance of copyright. We look forward to seeing the government sign and implement the Marrakesh Treaty and to working with government and the Blind Foundation to provide more readers with more access to our great books.”

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