Feeling Art, 25-26 June 2018
Crafting Intellectual Property Law to Enhance Disability Access to Artistic Works through 3D Printing Technology. (closed workshop)
3D printing now permits people with visual impairments (PVI) to experience 3D reproductions of paintings and photographs through touch. A few institutions have undertaken projects facilitating this, thus granting PVI an equal opportunity to experience visual art, and enhancing their human rights to participate in the cultural life of the community and enjoy the arts.
However, 3D reproductions may infringe copyright. Many copyright systems include certain exceptions to infringement that facilitate access to copyright works by PVI, but laws tend to focus on access to literary works; the application of disability exceptions to visual art is unclear. It is also often obscure whether current laws are technology-neutral, and able to encompass contemporary digital practices within the scope of exceptions to infringement. The lack, inadequacy, or uncertainty of exceptions to infringement of copyright may hamper sensory art projects and reduce inclusivity and equity in cultural engagement by PVI.
This workshop undertakes to map disability exceptions worldwide, and to reach an understanding of the status quo from the point of view of copyright law, disability law and art law, with the future goal of recommending a harmonisation of the topic under public international law, considering all the interests concerned (artists, PVI, museums).