[Dtb-talk] Fwd: Response for Support Ticket #102495

[Greg Kearney]

I got this back from Fictionwise.com the eReader people. This is the  
very thing I have worried about with the action of the Author's Guild  
in the United States.

Here we have a company claiming that screen readers are a violation of  
copyright, which is not the case either in the U.S. or Australia.  
Furthermore in the case of the Macintosh and the iPhone the screen  
reader is a part of the operating system and not as Fictionwise.com  
would suggest "another program".

It is also an interesting question if writing an application or device  
which deliberately inaccessible, as would seem to be the case here, as  
opposed to simply forgetting to include accessibility may well be  
illegal under civil rights laws in several nations.

At the very least Apple should not be a party to such a thing and  
should never approve applications which have been so crippled by  
deliberate act.

I have asked Fictionwise to put this statement into writing and to  
mail it to me. I would urge those of you who feel strongly about this  
issue to also contact them at support at fictionwise.com

Gregory Kearney
Manager - Accessible Media
Association for the Blind of Western Australia
61 Kitchener Avenue, PO Box 101
Victoria Park 6979, WA Australia

Telephone: +61 (08) 9311 8202
Telephone: +1 (307) 224-4022 (North America)
Fax: +61 (08) 9361 8696
Toll free: 1800 658 388 (Australia only)
Email: gkearney at gmail.com

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Fictionwise.com" <support at fictionwise.com>
> Date: 11 August 2009 2:49:02 AM
> To: gkearney at gmail.com
> Subject: Response for Support Ticket #102495
>
> Hi,
>
> Unfortunately, the ability to scoop the ebook's text using another  
> application has been disabled for copyright-protection reasons.
>
> Being able to scoop the text out, into another program, would allow  
> for easy duplication of copyrighted materials.
>
> Our software cannot be used with screen-reader software.
>
> We apologize for the inconvenience.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Ted
> eReader.com Support Team
>
> ============================================================
> You wrote:
> No accessibility for the blind using VoiceOver on either Mac or  
> iPhone. Your
> Macintosh and iPhone applications are not accessible to the blind  
> using the
> built in screen reader on both devices. Lists of book can not be  
> navigated and
> books once loaded can not be read. Why is this the case?
>
> Greg Kearney
> Manager -Accessible Media
> Association for the Blind of Western Australia
>