[Perform-talk] Copyright Office accepting comments until April 28 on changes to make accessible formats more widely available

[Donna Hill]

Hi Friends,
Here's a chance to be heard on the Kindle issue. This is a blog entry 
from Public Knowledge. I will put the contact link for leaving comments 
for the Copyright Office below the URL for the article. The deadline is 
April 28. Comments must be attached using the Browse button and in 
either Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, RTF, PDF or ASCII text formats. The 
form works well with Jaws 9.
Donna

Article URL:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2110
Copyright Office Comment FormURL:
http://www.copyright.gov/docs/sccr/comments/

PK tells the Copyright Office: Technology will enable the blind to 
access more information

Policy Blog
By
Rashmi Rangnath
on April 22, 2009 - 2:39pm

What does access to information mean to you?: the ability to read your 
newspaper – physical or online – every day?; the ability to go to a book 
store and buy your favorite author’s book?; the ability to read 
professional publications to advance your career? Most of us rely on 
these sources and more to keep ourselves informed and participate in 
society. But for the blind and the visually impaired access to 
information is not easy. Works have to be converted to special formats 
to enable access. Because copyrights are implicated during the process, 
copyright law provides certain exceptions enabling the creation of 
accessible formats.

Are these laws sufficient to allow the blind to read anything they want 
to? Is the market responding to their needs? The Copyright Office is 
asking for public comments on these and other questions. The request for 
comments comes in light of an upcoming meeting at the World Intellectual 
Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva this May. WIPO is slated to 
consider a new treaty calling for limitations and exceptions to national 
copyright laws which would, among other things,
enable the blind and the visually impaired to access information or 
enhance their current abilities to obtain access. We submitted our 
comments yesterday. In our comments we highlight how adaptive technology 
holds the promise to increase access for the blind despite limitations 
imposed by law and market practices. Adaptive technology consists of 
hardware or software products that convert characters that appear on a 
computer screen into accessible formats like Braille displays, digital 
speech, or enlarged text.

Before I talk about adaptive technologies, let me give some background. 
In the analog world books, magazine etc. have to be converted to formats 
such as talking books, large print books, or Braille. Converting 
material to these formats is expensive and involves delays. Because of 
this, very few publishers make their works available in accessible 
formats. Although copyright laws of many countries contains exceptions 
permitting others to make accessible copies, these exceptions are very 
narrow. In the U.S. the exception extends only to non-profits working 
for the blind. What is more, publishers cannot provide their digital 
files to these non-profits – a process which would reduce their cost of 
producing accessible copies. Also, not every format falls within the 
scope of the exception. The result: very little printed material is 
available to the blind in accessible formats. In fact, one 
representative for the blind explains, that world over, only 5% of 
printed material is available to the blind. The figure
is not likely to be very much higher in the U.S. either (page 66).

I mentioned earlier that adaptive technology holds the promise to change 
this situation. Many
technology companies design their products to work with adaptive 
technologies
(pages 29-33). For example, Adobe’s eBooks are designed to work with 
adaptive technologies. Similarly a number of companies offer products 
that allow the blind to access the world wide web with the aid of 
adaptive technology. Use of these technologies eliminates the need to 
convert printed material to accessible formats thus enabling the blind 
to access information at the same time as sighted individuals. As more 
information moves to digital formats, adaptive technologies would enable 
the blind to access increasing amounts of information.

So that should significantly remove barriers to access and overcome the 
problems caused by narrow copyright exceptions. Right? Well, not quite. 
Although adaptive technologies offer a great solution, publishers 
complain against its text-to-speech or read aloud features, claiming 
that these interfere with their audio rights. Under pressure from 
publishers, Adobe added a feature to eBooks that allowed the 
text-to-speech functionality to be turned off
if a publisher so desired. More recently, Amazon did the same thing with 
its Kindle under pressure from publishers. In addition to 
text-to-speech, DRM used to control access to eBooks also prevents other 
features of adaptive technology such as Braille conversion and screen 
magnification from working.

The DMCA prevents the circumvention of technological schemes that 
control copyright rights even if the purpose of circumvention is to 
enable the blind to read ebooks. While the Copyright Office has 
acknowledged the blind’s right to access a wide array of works and 
granted an exemption permitting circumvention, the exemption has to be 
renewed once every three years. In our filing, we urge the Copyright 
Office to advocate for a permanent exemption in favor of enabling access.

We make one other suggestion. Representatives for the blind explain that 
the ability to import/export accessible copies across jurisdictions 
would significantly improve their ability to access information. 
However, the laws of many countries prevent importation/exportation 
considering such activity an infringement of copyrights. We urge the 
Copyright Office to advocate for harmonized international legal 
standards that would facilitate import/export.

The deadline for filing comments is April 28th. If you are a blind 
person or have other visual impairment, narrate your experiences to the 
Copyright Office by filing comments with them. The Office will also hold 
a public hearing on the issue on May 18th. You can attend that meeting 
or look forward to information about the meeting on this blog.

About the Author
Rashmi Rangnath's picture
Rashmi Rangnath

Rashmi is a Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge. Her current focus is on 
copyright and patent law issues.

-- 
Read my articles on American Chronicle:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3885

For my bio & to hear clips from The Last Straw:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill

Apple I-Tunes

phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=259244374

Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind
www.padnfb.org








E-mail message checked by Spyware Doctor (6.0.0.386)
Database version: 5.12240
http://www.pctools.com/en/spyware-doctor-antivirus/