The Impact of the Marrakesh Treaty on the System of Copy Right Limitations and Exceptions in Ethiopia: the Challenges and the Prospects.
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Date
2018-02
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Addis Ababa Unversity
Abstract
Reading for Various purposes is a human rights issue guaranteed by international and regional
human rights laws and some international copyright standards. However, there are barriers to
these rights. The major barrier is the dynamic interaction of the market, technology and the
copyright systems. To be more specific copyright law with is territorial nature that grants
monopoly powers to the authors and rights holders is a typical barrier. The issue of obtaining
copyrighted literary and artistic works in accessible format copies is a challenge to the blind, the
visually impaired or otherwise print disabled persons. To eliminate this problem, the Marrakesh
Treaty was adopted on 27 June 2013 and became effective in 30 September 2016. The treaty
requires the contracting parties to establish mandatory exceptions or limitations in their
copyright systems based on which the relevant entities including VIPs can reproduce,
distribute, and make them available to the beneficiaries the copyrighted work without the
consent of the authors/ the right holders in appropriate accessible formats copies. In addition,
the copyright exceptions and limitations facilitate cross- border exchange of works in accessible
format copies. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of the Marrakesh Treaty on the
exceptions and limitations of the Ethiopian copyright and neighboring rights system, understand
whether it is compliant to its principles or not and make possible recommendations.
To answer the research questions, the study has employed doctrinal legal research methodology.
In addition, both primary and secondary sources of data were used. The primary data sources
were the constitution, copyright legislations; rules and regulations of administrative entities. The
secondary data sources were books, journal articles, legal commentaries, abstracts and
conference papers. Furthermore, on line sources through the internet were the predominant
source of information. The texts of data collected from primary and secondary source were
qualitatively analyzed and interpreted.
The findings of the research showed that the exceptions and limitations in the Ethiopian
copyright and neighboring rights protection regime are not compatible to the Marrakesh Treaty
for VIPs. Moreover, there are no mandatory copyright exceptions and limitations specific to
VIPs in order to facilitate the making and distributions of works inaccessible format copies with
in the nation and promote cross-border exchange of the same. These are new obligations
imposed by the treaty on the contracting states. Furthermore, there are no specific dispute
settlement mechanisms to provide remedies.
To conclude, the Ethiopian copyright and neighboring rights system is not compatible to the
objectives of the Marrakesh Treaty set for the benefit of the VIPs. In addition, the copyright
system failed to enforce the human rights of the VIPs granted by general international human
rights laws in (UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR) and by specific disability law such as UNCRPD and
the Marrakesh Treaty. Moreover, currently, the local legal and institutional frameworks of
Ethiopian copyright system is not capable of enforcing the obligations required by the above
mentioned international laws and the Marrakesh treaty in to its local contexts.
Therefore, the government with its key stake holders including the VIPs and the content creators/
the rights holders should cooperatively identify groups of VIPs in Ethiopia and understand the
extent of their problems. Based on this result the legal and the institutional frame works should
be reoriented to accede the Marrakesh. Respect international human rights obligations.