[Blindtlk] Fwd: Call to IMMEDIATE ACTION by DAISY Members and Friends

[David B Andrews]

The U.S. representatives are as follows:


ÉTATS-UNIS D’AMÉRIQUE/UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

David O. CARSON, Associate Register for Policy 
and International Affairs, United States 
Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Michael SHAPIRO, United States Patent and 
Trademark Office, Alexandria, Virginia

Jacqueline MORALES (Ms.), Attorney Advisor, 
United States Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, Virginia


 >>> kerscher at montana.com 10/22/2008 3:37 PM >>>
Dear DAISY Members and Friends,

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will be considering a
copyright treaty proposed by the World Blind Union (WBU) at the WIPO
November 3 Standing Committee Meeting. The treaty, called "WIPO Treaty for
Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled
Persons" is available online at:
<http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/tvi_en.html.>http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/tvi_en.html. 


We are asking all of you to contact your country's representative who will
be attending the WIPO Standing Committee meeting and advocate in favor of
this draft treaty. We need you to act now, because the meeting will take
place in ten days.

Information and links to supporting documents are provided immediately below
in this email. We also offer some guidance on who to contact in your country
and some assistance finding the right person.

1. On the front page of the DAISY Website under "Recent News" is the link to
an article that provides further detail. It also contains links to the draft
treaty in HTML, DAISY 2.02, and in DAISY 3. DAISY home page:
<http://www.daisy.org>http://www.daisy.org
Direct link to the news entry:
<http://www.daisy.org/news/news_detail.shtml?NewsId=458>http://www.daisy.org/news/news_detail.shtml?NewsId=458

2. The WIPO Standing Committee will be meeting November 3-7, 2008 and the
WBU proposed treaty is the first substantive item on the agenda. The agenda
can be found at:
<http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=108373>http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=108373

3. DAISY Members and Friends should send their email letter in support of
the proposed treaty to the department/minister that is going to represent
their government in the SCCR/WIPO meeting. This information can normally be
found within the department of foreign affairs and education in your
country. If anybody has difficulties finding their SCCR representative we
have provided names of those who attended the last meeting. This can be
found at:
<http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/wipo_delegates_sccr16.html#toc17>http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/wipo_delegates_sccr16.html#toc17

If you are unable to find the name of the representative in your country at
the link provided above, please contact Judit Rius Sanjuan
[judit.rius at keionline.org] and/or Thiru Balasubramaniam
[thiru at keionline.org].

4. The treaty proposal put forward by the WBU is an extremely important
document which addresses information access on an international level. We
suggest you familiarize yourself with the proposal, and ask that each of you
contact the government representative in your country who will attend the
SCCR/WIPO meeting. Background and talking points are available at:
<http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/tvi_memo_en.html>http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/tvi_memo_en.html

Best
George Kerscher, Secretary General, DAISY Consortium


George Kerscher Ph.D.
Access to information is a fundamental human right in our Information Age.
Senior Officer, Accessible Information
Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D)
<http://www.rfbd.org>http://www.rfbd.org
Secretary General, DAISY Consortium
<http://www.daisy.org>http://www.daisy.org
Co-chair Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a division of the W3C
<http://www.w3c.org/wai>http://www.w3c.org/wai
Board Representative to the International Digital Publishing Forum    (IDPF)
<http://www.idpf.org>http://www.idpf.org
Phone: +1 406/549-4687
Email: kerscher at montana.com