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.”
For further information please contact Melanie
Laville-Moore on melaniel@allenandunwin.com
or on 021 593 555.
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