Libraries for the Blind as Accessible Content Publishers: Copyright and Related Issues

Libraries for the blind developed as charities, circulating and producing, for the most part, Braille. Their seeking of copyright licenses to permit them to produce such books did not pose any particular threat to copyright holders and publishers. But as they started taking their places as libraries that rendered library services, and as technological developments enabled them to make and circulate accessible books in various forms to readers with different print disabilities, it became difficult for them to have to seek and obtain such licenses for a variety of reasons. Many governments therefore enacted statutory exceptions to their copyright laws to assist them. Some of those exceptions are considered here, with reference to their efficacy. Particular attention is paid to difficulties arising out of those exceptions as they impact interlending services. It is argued that those laws alone do not appear to be at the heart of the problems libraries for the blind experience with regard to interlending. Rather, the delivery of digital materials via the Internet, being entirely different from the delivery of books through interlending arrangements, is creating obstacles that require agreements with publishers, if they are to be addressed.