[blindlaw] [bllaw] International Copyright Concerns for Blind Readers

[ray wayne]

Does anyone have updated information on the status of this matter? My chapter members received this e-mail, and our meeting is this Wednesday. The question will invariably come up. 
Thanks in advance. 
Ray Wayne
PS: Please know that I am requesting information only—I do not, REPEAT, DO NOT, wish to instigate a flurry of commentary about the Obama administration! 


----- Original Message -----
From: "Frye, Dan" <DFrye at nfb.org> (by way of David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>)
To: david.andrews at nfbnet.org
Date: Friday, May 29, 2009 17:42:27
Subject: [bllaw] International Copyright Concerns for Blind Readers

>
>
> 
> Colleagues:
> 
> I am circulating a lengthy post regarding efforts to limit an 
> international treaty that would allow for rules that parallel 
> existing domestic exceptions to the copyright law for blind people to 
> govern in an international context. Please help bring pressure on 
> authorities by letting President Obama know that these provisions 
> would be useful, and ask him to direct his representatives to abandon 
> their hostile posture toward aspects of the treaty that would be 
> helpful. You may Email your concerns to:
> 
> <mailto:President at whitehouse.gov>President at whitehouse.gov
> 
> The post follows:
> 
> 
> Right now, in Geneva, at the UN's World Intellectual Property 
> Organization, history is being made. For the first time in WIPO 
> history, the body that creates the world's copyright treaties is 
> attempting to write a copyright treaty dedicated to protecting the 
> interests of copyright users, not just copyright owners.
> 
> At issue is a treaty to protect the rights of blind people and people 
> with other disabilities that affect reading (people with dyslexia, 
> people who are paralyzed or lack arms or hands for turning pages). 
> This should be a slam dunk: who wouldn't want a harmonized system of 
> copyright exceptions that ensure that it's possible for disabled 
> people to get access to the written word?
> 
> The USA, that's who. The Obama administration'
> 
> US negotiators have joined with a rogue's gallery of rich country 
> trade representatives to oppose protection for blind people. Other 
> nations and regions opposing the rights of blind people include 
> Canada and the EU.
> 
> Update: Also opposing rights for disabled people: Australia, New 
> Zealand, the Vatican and Norway.
> 
> Activists at WIPO are desperate to get the word out. They're tweeting 
> madly from the negotiation (technically called the 18th session of 
> the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights) publishing 
> editorials on the Huffington Post, etc.
> 
> Here's where you come in: this has to get wide exposure, to get cast 
> as broadly as possible, so that it will find its way into the ears of 
> the obscure power-brokers who control national trade-negotiators.
> 
> I don't often ask readers to do things like this, but please, forward 
> this post to people you know in the US, Canada and the EU, and ask 
> them to reblog, tweet, and spread the word, especially to government 
> officials and activists who work on disabled rights. We know that 
> WIPO negotiations can be overwhelmed by citizen activists -- that's 
> how we killed the Broadcast Treaty negotiation a few years back -- 
> and with your help, we can make history, and create a world where 
> copyright law protects the public interest.
> 
> I am attending a meeting in Geneva of the World Intellectual Property 
> Organization (WIPO). This evening the United States government, in 
> combination with other high income countries in "Group B" is seeking 
> to block an agreement to discuss a treaty for persons who are blind 
> or have other reading disabilities.
> 
> The proposal for a treaty is supported by a large number of civil 
> society NGOs, the World Blind Union, the National Federation of the 
> Blind in the US, the International DAISY Consortium, Recording for 
> the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), Bookshare.Org, and groups representing 
> persons with reading disabilities all around the world.
> 
> The main aim of the treaty is to allow the cross-border import and 
> export of digital copies of books and other copyrighted works in 
> formats that are accessible to persons who are blind, visually 
> impaired, dyslexic or have other reading disabilities, using special 
> devices that present text as refreshable braille, computer generated 
> text to speech, or large type. These works, which are expensive to 
> make, are typically created under national exceptions to copyright 
> law that are specifically written to benefit persons with disabilities.
> 
> ...
> 
> The opposition from the United States and other high income countries 
> is due to intense lobbying from a large group of publishers that 
> oppose a "paradigm shift,"
> 
> where treaties would protect consumer interests, rather than expand 
> rights for copyright owners.
> 
> The Obama Administration was lobbied heavily on this issue, including 
> meetings with high level White House officials. Assurances coming 
> into the negotiations this week that things were going in the right 
> direction have turned out to be false, as the United States 
> delegation has basically read from a script written by lobbyists for 
> publishers, extolling the virtues of market based solutions, ignoring 
> mountains of evidence of a "book famine" and the insane legal 
> barriers to share works.
> 
> Obama Joins Group to Block Treaty for Blind and Other Reading 
> Disabilities COPYRIGHT EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS Twitter feed for #sccr18
> 
> 
> 
> With Kind Regards,
> 
> 
> inininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininininin*
> Daniel B. Frye, J.D.
> Associate Editor
> The Braille Monitor
> National Federation of the Blind
> Office of the President
> 1800 Johnson Street
> Baltimore, Maryland 21230
> Telephone: (410) 659-9314 Ext. 2208
> Mobile: (410) 241-7006
> Fax: (410) 685-5653
> Email: <mailto:DFrye at nfb.org>DFrye at nfb.org
> Web Address: <http://www.nfb.org/>www.nfb.org
> "Voice of the Nation's Blind"
> _______________________________________________
> bllaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for bllaw:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/rwayne1%40nyc.rr.com