[nabs-l] WIPO reaches agreement ending book famine

Jane juanitatighan at gmail.com
Thu Jun 27 20:37:29 UTC 2013



Here is a direct link to the PdF of the treaty:

http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/diplconf/en/vip_dc/vip_dc_8.pdf


On Jun 27, 2013, at 4:25 PM, zeynep sule yilmaz <blacklotus86 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I wanted to share that good news with you.  Please find details below.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Zeynep
> 
> Your voice has been heard. Thank you!
> 
> 	Dear Friend,
> This morning officials at the World Intellectual Property Organization
> (WIPO) reached an agreement to provide wider access to books for the
> visually impaired in different countries, a long-pending demand of the
> Perkins community, World Blind Union and activist groups everywhere.
> 
> The treaty is expected to be formally adopted in the plenary session
> tomorrow, June 27, concluding a conference in Marrakesh, Morocco,
> where representatives from more than 180 countries have been in
> attendance.
> 
> Worldwide, less than 1% of all books are accessible for people who are
> blind and this month we asked you to get involved.
> 
> Dr. W. Aubrey Webson, director of Perkins International celebrates the
> treaty. "A key has been turned to open the door to opportunities for
> persons who are blind and those with print handicaps. It shows that
> even a small group of dedicated persons can change the world and in
> this case, indeed they have."
> 
> Your voice has been heard. This is the first critical step in solving
> a worldwide book famine.
> When officially approved tomorrow, the treaty will help aid
> distribution of specially formatted books in different countries by
> removing copyright law hurdles. For instance, U.S.-based Bookshare,
> which is an online library for people with sight disabilities, has
> about 200,000 books in its collection, but only about 75,000 of them
> can be distributed in the U.K. because of copyright restrictions.
> 
> There's a lot of work to do, but this is a big win and a great start.
> We couldn't have done this without you.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Steven M. Rothstein
> President, Perkins
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://host.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
> http://host.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/juanitatighan%40gmail.com





More information about the NABS-L mailing list