Austria has implemented the Use for the benefit of people with a disability (Art. 5.3(b) InfoSoc) exception in Section 42d of the Federal Law on Copyright in Literary and Artistic Works and Related Rights. The national exception is much more restrictive than the EU exception.

Implementation summary:

This exception allows visually or reading impaired persons and persons acting on their behalf, as well as authorized entities to produce copies in an accessible format, distribute, broadcast, make available to the public, publicly display and use for public lectures, performances and demonstrations, on a non-profit basis, for the benefit and exclusive use of persons with visual or reading disabilities and other authorized entities for visual and reading disabilities. Lawful access to the work is required. Beneficiaries must have their residence or registered office in Austria or in another member state of the EU or a signatory state to the EEA. The provision of art. 5.3.(b) of the InfoSoc Directive was initially implemented in Section 42d. However, in 2018 (by amendment of the Copyright Act BGBl I No. 63/2018) the exception was replaced in its entirety by a provision implementing the Marakesh Directive (EU) 2017/1564.

Implementation details:

Beneficiaries:

  • visually or reading impaired persons
  • persons acting on behalf of visually or reading impaired persons
  • authorised entities

Purposes:

  • make a copy of a work in a format accessible to beneficiaries
  • exclusive use by beneficiaries

Usage:

  • make an accessible copy
  • distribute, broadcast, communicate, make available this copy to a beneficiary

Subject Matter:

  • works
  • photographs
  • phonograms
  • film fixations
  • broadcasts
  • databases

Compensation:

  • fair compensation required (can only be handled by collecting societies)

Attribution:

  • no attribution required

Introduced/last updated: 16 August 2018

Remarks: For more information, see the submission in 'Make and disseminate accessible format copies of works (Art. 4 MKD)' for Austria.

The exception applies to photographs and cinematographic products (§74(7)), performances (§71(1)), phonograms (§76(4)), broadcasts (§76a(3)) and databases (§76d(5)).