[nfb-talk] Fw: [Access-l] Fwd: Obama Joins Group to Block Treaty for Blind andOther Reading Disabilities

[Ed Meskys]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Pattison" <srp at internode.on.net>
To: "Access L" <access-l at access-l.com>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 9:14 AM
Subject: [Access-l] Fwd: Obama Joins Group to Block Treaty for Blind 
andOther Reading Disabilities


> From:    Scott Erichsen pianoman at scotterichsen.com
> To:      vip-l vip-l at softspeak.com.au
>
> Obama Joins Group to Block Treaty for Blind and Other Reading Disabilities
>
> 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 number of accessible works is very small everywhere, relative to what
> "sighted" persons can read. However, in developing countries, the
> collections are super small, and even in the USA, access to works in
> languages other than English is practically non-existent.
>
> Under the current international legal regime, there is almost no sharing 
> of
> these works across borders. The treaty would change that, vastly expanding
> the availability of works to all persons who are blind or have other 
> reading
> disabilities.
>
> Every regional group in the developing world expressed support for 
> advancing
> work on this proposal, as part of a broader agenda on access to knowledge
> and the protection of consumer interests.
>
> 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.
>
> Last week Obama worked with PhRMA to kill a Medical R&D Treaty at the 
> World
> Health Organization. This week he is trying to kill a treaty for blind and
> reading disabled persons. This is not encouraging.
>
> Live tweets of the WIPO SCCR negotiations use the hash tag #sccr18. My 
> live
> tweets are here: http://twitter.com/jamie_love
>
> Source:
> www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/obama-joins-group-to-bloc_b_208693.
> html
>
> Regards Steve
> Email:  srp at internode.on.net
> MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
> Skype:  steve1963
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