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Blind SA takes minister to court over access to world libraries

Parks Tau claims he cannot accede to global treaty until local copyright amendment bill is in force

A protest outside the Constitutional Court in November 2024 when lawyers for Blind SA requested that a court-crafted copyright exception for braille and other accessible formats be extended. Archive photo: Ihsaan Haffejee.

Blind SA is taking trade and industry minister Parks Tau to court for not acceding to the Marrakesh Treaty.
Until South Africa joins the treaty, blind and visually impaired people here can’t use international digital libraries, including the large ones in the US.
Tau says the Copyright Amendment Bill must become law first, but Blind SA argues the Constitutional Court has already made the existing law compliant.

Blind SA is taking trade and industry minister Parks Tau to court for not acceding to the Marrakesh Treaty, which would…

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