Protection of the Rights of Copyright Users with Special Attention to Visually Handicapped People under Sri Lankan Intellectual Property Regim

Abstract

Today, the validity of intellectual property has been trumped the validity of all kinds of movable and immovable property. Due to its importance, a specific international organization which was known as World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been established. Among various types of intellectual property right, the significance of copyright has been recognized by almost all countries in the world. Thus, many international instruments like Burn Convention; Trade Related Aspects on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, 1996 WiPO Copyright Treaty, etc. has been formed. However, the current world has gradually recognized that the rights of a copyright user have not been sufficiently protected. In Sri Lanka too, though there are number of specific section in Intellectual Property Act to protect the rights of copyright owner, author, as well as the rights of performers, producers, even broadcasting organizations, etc. the rights of a copyright user cannot be seen. Thus, due to this unfortunate situation, though the work is so eminent, the accessibility to that work is sometimes problematic. For instance, it seems that the current intellectual property law has forgotten the rights of visually handicapped users. It is needless to mention about their limited access to books, audio-visual works, etc. The equality clause (Article 12) of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic Sri Lanka has implied the protection of disabled people's rights without discrimination. Thus, according to my view, it is high time to amend the Intellectual Property Act in Sri Lanka including the rights of copyright users. In this article, I hope to build the foundation in achieving this aforementioned purpose by analysing the importance of right to accessibility to a copyright work. For the purpose of this article, I did a field survey in combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. I collected information from visually handicapped peoples by using questionnaires. Anyway, here, I mainly attempted to find details in the variety of their age, the level of their education, income and vision. In addition to that, I collected information qualitatively from legal professionals and academics on Intellectual property law by the form of interview. However, for convenience, I have limited this research to Colombo area. Due to using very small sample for the field survey, the importance of library research cannot be disregarded. I found primary and secondary sources by using the library of University of Colombo, as well as the internet. Anyway, I purport in this article to reflect the importance of the rights of a copyright user and give my recommendations for a positive movement. Ultimately, I want this article to be an effective foundation to protect the rights of copyright users, especially the visually handicapped people's rights.