The White House has submitted two copyright treaties to the Senate for ratification: the Marrakesh Treaty, which would improve access to copyrighted works for people with visual and print disabilities; and the Beijing Treaty, which could create a new layer of monopoly rights for the creators of audiovisual works. International copyright treaties move slowly, so neither of these is a surprise. For years now, we've encouraged the adoption of Marrakesh and the rejection of Beijing.

The Marrakesh Treaty would go a long way towards addressing a shortage of accessible books that plagues print-disabled readers in many parts of the world. We described the problem when the agreement was finalized in Marrakesh:



When we gave Jamie Love, the director of Knowledge Ecology International, a 2013 Pioneer Award, it was in large part for his 10 years of work negotiating and securing the passage of this agreement.

By contrast, the Beijing Treaty would create a new tool for the content industry to control cultural works, and even grant new censorship abilities, under the thin guise of supporting performers. We explain the problem in a post from last year:




Given the disparity between these two treaties, we hope nothing but timing binds them together. There were rumors last year that the ratification of the two would be introduced as a single legislative package, but it now appears that each will be considered on its own merits. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, charged with preparing implementation legislation, and has so far only released a package for Marrakesh [pdf].

The Marrakesh Treaty will go into force when 20 countries have ratified it. Currently, that number stands at 14.

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