Section27 welcomes ConCourt order in favour of blind, visually impaired persons

JOHANNESBURG - Non-profit organisation Section27 has welcomed the Constitutional Court’s interim order in favour of blind and visually impaired persons.

The court’s order temporarily allows affected persons to convert literary works without the authorisation of the owner of the work.  

READ: ConCourt hands down temp order amending Copyright Act favouring blind and visually impaired

Section27, which represented BlindSA, sought the intervention of the court following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to sign the Copyright Amendment Bill into law.

This is despite the apex court’s finding that parts of the legislation are unconstitutional in 2022.

An attorney for Section27, Demichelle Petherbridge: “Even though it’s an interim order, this order will allow an exception to copyright for persons who are blind and visually impaired to be immediately read into the Copyright Act.

"And it creates a lot of legal certainty now as to how people who are blind and visually impaired can go about converting books into formats like braille or large print in a lawful way, and so this will be in place until the court brings out a final order. So we are really thrilled by the interim order."

SECTION27 ALLAYS FEARS OF BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS

Section27 has sought to allay fears arising from the Constitutional Court’s interim order.

This is after some authors bemoaned the order of the apex court.

However, the blind and visually impaired need to gain lawful access to literary works.

“They must purchase that book the same way everyone else must purchase that book and then take on the conversion of that book and pay for those costs themselves,” explained Petherbridge.

The apex court ordered that the integrity of the reading material may not be changed, adding that the exercise must be undertaken on a non-profit basis.