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Of Access to Copyright Materials and Blindness
,----[ Quote ]
| First, in what sense is providing more
| access to the visually impaired not
| compatible with US copyright laws? The
| proponents of this change have gone out of
| their way to make sure that the access given
| is within current copyright regimes, which
| are not serving this huge, disadvantaged
| constituency properly. And how would it
| undermine expanded access? It would,
| manifestly, provide access that is not
| available now; the publishers have proposed
| nothing that would address the problem other
| than saying the system's fine, we don't want
| to change it.
|
| But the most telling - and frankly,
| sickening - aspect of this post is the way
| its author sets up the rights of authors
| against the rights of those with visual
| disabilities, as if the latter are little
| better than those scurvy "pirates" that
| "steal" copyright material from those poor
| authors.
|
| In fact, *nothing* is being taken, it's
| simply that these people wish to enjoy their
| rights to read as others do - something that
| has been denied to them by an industry
| indifferent to their plight. And which
| author would not be happy to extend the
| pleasure of reading their works to those cut
| off from it by virtue of physical
| disabilities?
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/of-access-to-copyright-materials-and.html
[A2k] US delegation welcomes views on WIPO Treaty for the blind
,----[ Quote ]
| Justin Hughes of the US delegation asked
| that I pass on his email address, so that
| people can communication with him if they
| want to express views on the WIPO treaty for
| disabilities being discussed at the WIPO
| SCCR 19 this week.
`----
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/a2k/2009-December/005182.html
Statement of Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) at SCCR 19
,----[ Quote ]
| I represent the Royal National Institute of
| Blind People (RNIB), which works to serve
| the 2 million people with sight loss in UK.
|
| As part of this work, RNIB has a library of
| some 40,000 books in audio, large print and
| Braille, which we distribute to reading
| disabled people.
|
| Most accessible books are made by specialist
| organisations like ours, even in cases where
| publishers provide licenses or the source
| files. These specialist organisations have
| limited resources, and are very often
| charities.
|
| It should be noted that we cannot even use
| all our funds to make accessible books! We
| provide many vital but costly services, such
| as emotional support and employment advice.
`----
http://keionline.org/node/729
Digital Economy Bill [HL]
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/amend/am001-g.htm
Taking forward the Gowers Review of IP
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-policy/consult/consult-live/consult-gowers2.htm
New Zealand Releases Revamped Three Strikes Proposal
,----[ Quote ]
| The New Zealand government has released a
| revamped three strikes proposal that
| incorporates full court hearings and the
| possibility of financial penalties. A prior
| proposal, which would have resulted in
| subscriber access being terminated without
| court oversight, was dropped earlier this
| year following public protest. The new
| proposal is essentially a notice-and-notice
| system where ISPs would be required to pass
| along alleged infringement notices to the
| subscriber. After the third notice, the
| rights holder could seek up to $15,000 at
| the Copyright Tribunal for damages
| sustained. If the infringements continue,
| the rights holder could go to court to seek
| suspension of the subscriber account for up
| to six months.
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4622/125/
Openness? Transparency? Not When Biden Gets To Hang With
Entertainment Industry Lobbyists: Press Kicked Out
,----[ Quote ]
| Then we heard that Attorney General Eric
| Holder was reinvigorating the Justice
| Department's "task force" on copyright. Why?
| There's still no indication of any actual
| harm (both the movie and music industries
| are growing). Then, Commerce Secretary Locke
| noted that anti-camcording efforts are an
| important part of the anti-piracy effort.
| Funny timing, given the recent fiasco over a
| young woman arrested for incidental
| capturing of snippets of New Moon.
|
| So it started out just great. And then?
| Well, then the press got kicked out.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091215/1307497368.shtml
Holder At White House Summit With Entertainment Executives
,----[ Quote ]
| Vice President Joe Biden led a round table
| meeting of high ranking government officials
| and entertainment industry executives at the
| White House conference center today, where
| he pledged that the Obama administration
| would work to combat piracy in the rapidly
| changing technological age.
`----
http://www.mainjustice.com/2009/12/15/holder-at-white-house-summit-with-entertainment-executives/
Hypocrisy, Thy Name is MPAA
,----[ Quote ]
| What the MPAA wants is for ISPs, for
| example, to change their businesses "to
| reflect current realities and adopt modern,
| flexible systems where they do not exist":
| how strange, then, that the MPAA is not
| prepared to do the same by working according
| to the new digital rules instead of clinging
| to the old analogue ones...
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/hypocrisy-thy-name-is-mpaa.html
Congress Gives $30 Million To Fight 'Piracy'
,----[ Quote ]
| Recent studies have shown that -- despite a
| massive recession -- both the music and
| movie industries are having fantastic years.
| However, both industries are complaining
| about how they're being "killed" by
| "piracy." There's no evidence of this of
| course, but when it comes to copyright,
| politicians don't seem to believe evidence
| is necessary.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091215/1817437375.shtml
Will The Chinese BitTorrent Crackdown Boost Criminals?
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently it became clear that Chinese
| authorities were going ahead with their
| planned video site purge. Many BitTorrent
| sites fell including some of the countryâs
| largest, but of course none of this changes
| the demand for free or near-free media. So
| will the crackdown force those seeking cheap
| movies back onto the streets?
`----
http://torrentfreak.com/will-the-chinese-bittorrent-crackdown-boost-criminals-091215/
UK Aggregator NewsNow Dumps Newspapers After They Demand Payment To Link To Stories
,----[ Quote ]
| Back in October, we wrote about how various
| newspapers, under the auspices of the
| "Newspaper Licensing Agency" were threatning
| NewsNow, a UK news aggregator that is (in my
| experience) one of the more comprehensive
| aggregators out there, but which only shows
| headlines and links to full stories. It's
| difficult to see how that would be a
| copyright violation in anyone's definition
| of the term or why that should require any
| kind of license.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091214/1010557343.shtml
Recent:
Intellectual Monopolists Scorn the Blind
,----[ Quote ]
| This, then, is the reality of "modern"
| copyright: it fails to serve huge numbers
| of people, many of whom are already
| suffering from discrimination in other
| ways.
|
| Given this situation, various
| organisations are not unreasonably trying
| to facilitate access to copyrighted works
| for those who are visually disabled with a
| new WIPO treaty that would define basic
| rights for this group. Who could object to
| such a humanitarian cause? Well, the
| publishers, of course.
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/intellectual-monopolists-scorn-blind.html
USA, Canada and the EU attempt to kill treaty to protect blind people's access
to written material
,----[ Quote ]
| Right now, in Geneva, at the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization,
| history is being made. For the first time in WIPO history, the body that
| creates the world's copyright treaties is attempting to write a copyright
| treaty dedicated to protecting the interests of copyright users, not just
| copyright owners.
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/29/usa-canada-and-the-e.html
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