White House

President Donald J. Trump Signs Marrakesh Treaty Into Law

Written October 12, 2018

On October 9, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed into law S. 2559, the “Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act,” which provides for the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled.

The Marrakesh Treaty makes the production and international transfer of specially-adapted books for people with blindness or visual impairments easier. It does this by establishing a set of limitations and exceptions to traditional copyright law.

Last March, AIPLA submitted a comment letter on the matter which stated: “We believe that the legislation serves the laudable goal of increasing access to copyrighted works by blind, visually impaired and disabled persons and is narrowly tailored to avoid creating a significant risk to the owners’ ability to exploit the market for those works.”