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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies

Part2:Country studies

Denmark

Copyright

The exclusive right of authors and other rightsholders to control use of their works is, in the Danish Copyright Act, limited in certain ways for visually and hearing handicapped people as well as for certain other groups.

Limitations to the rightsholders' exclusive right for the benefit of visually impaired people and, in general, handicapped persons were introduced in the Danish Copyright Act of 1961.

Then, the exception only allowed reproduction in Braille as well as photocopying educational use. The law also contained a legal licence for noncommercial talking books.

The provision has undergone certain changes throughout the period. The group of people who can benefit from the provision has been enlarged, and the scope of the exception has been widened.

Significant amendments took place in connection with the adoption of a new Copyright Act in 1995 and further in 1996. Changes were also made in 2002 when Denmark transposed the European Union Directive 2001/29 of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. Section 17 of the Consolidated Act on Copyright 2003, does not make any distinction between analogue and digital copies. Consequently, the provision also allows the making of digital copies within its framework. It also specifically encompasses people who are ‘unable to read printed text'.

DBB has been closely connected with recent changes to the Danish copyright law. It is part of the Ministry of Culture which is also responsible for copyright law in Denmark. In anticipation of changes in the law, DBB lobbied to have the ability to produce accessible versions of content for permanent distribution to its members (as opposed to lending).

The Danish Publishers' Association also lobbied, underlining its concerns about the possible misuse of converted formats in electronic form. A working group was established and eventually agreement was reached between DBB and the Publishers' Association whereby the interests of both sides were mutually recognised. The exception included in the revised copyright law was made subject, through this agreement, to a condition that converted content would only be made available to members of DBB or people with proven and documented disabilities.

DBB has not encountered any case where it would have to invoke the provisions of the copyright law due to the inability to access content blocked by technical protection measures. It does not anticipate this would be an issue at the institutional level but can see that there might be an issue for individual users.