[blindlaw] Accessible legislation/law beyond 17 U.S.C. § 121

chatter8712 at gmail.com chatter8712 at gmail.com
Wed Feb 4 15:04:37 UTC 2009


The following is just an oppinion of mine. I'm not a lawyer, nore a
law student, just a party interested in the law:

I have read the section, and I feel that what you would do - natural
reader through a PDF and distributing that - would be against the law,
as an MP3 CD is not a blind-specific format. Part of the law is that
you must be an authorized entity, as bookshare is. Another part is the
requirement for a blind-specific format, something like Dazy. If you
were authorized (and how to become authorized isn't clear), and you
bought the Tom Clancey novel, scanned it with OCR, and made it
available to people with a proven disability, that would be legal. For
example, bookshare requires a form from an instructer of the blind, or
a doctor, to be "proof of a print disability."

On 2/4/09, Patrick H. Stiehm <stiehm.law at juno.com> wrote:
> A careful reading of 17 U.S.C. § 121, results in the realization of how
> truly narrow in scope this exception to the copyright protection is.
> Once you get beyond the question of textbooks i and the other rather
> limited number of materials the statute covers you have a broader
> question of copyright infringement.
>
> For example, suppose I buy the latest Tom Clancy thriller in paperback,
> cut it up, run it through my scanner and convert it to a PDF document.
> After it's in PDF format by use Natural Reader to convert it to a
> recorded format. I then listened to the book in that recorded format
> (MP3).  Have I violated the copyright with respect to the Tom Clancy
> book.
>
> Beyond what I have described, assume that after I am done with it I then
> give the book in this recorded format to a friend to listen to.  Is there
> a copyright violation at that point.
>
> I'm relatively certain that if I start to sell my MP3 files for people to
> listen to the book I am violating the copyright. What if I simply put it
> up on the web for people to download and enjoy, without my charging for
> it.  Is there a violation?
>
> Is there anybody on the list that has worked in the copyright area that
> is comfortable addressing these questions? I think we should all find
> this of interest.
>
> Patrick H. Stiehm
> Stiehm Law Office
> Alexandria, VA 22309
> 703-360-1089 (Voice)
> 703-935-8266 (Fax)
> ____________________________________________________________
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>
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-- 
-Shane
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