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Receiving the 2013 Migel Medal

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Earlier today, I attended the American Foundation for the Blind’s (AFB) National Leadership Conference in Chicago where I received the 2013 Migel Medal. And when the idea of a peer-to-peer ebook library came to me, it was George who I went to with the idea. It was named for the first board chair of AFB, M.C.

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The Road to Accessibility without Borders: Celebrating the One-Year Anniversary of the Marrakesh Treaty

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

One year ago, on June 28, 2013, at a diplomatic conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO ) agreed on a historic international copyright exception for people with print disabilities. Going forward, new countries that want to abide by the Treaty provisions would need to directly ratify it.

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Why Your Country Should Ratify the Marrakesh Treaty

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

The international legal landscape for people with these disabilities dramatically changed on June 28, 2013, when the World Intellectual Property Organization adopted the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled. It is politically popular.

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Nonprofit Technology News: 2013 Year in Review

Tech Soup

2013 was the year of an ever-widening NSA spying scandal with its revelations of how little digital privacy we really have – even heads of state. The much-heralded wearable computing era arrived with a crop of smartwatches during 2013. A 2013 survey from The Millennial Impact. Smartwatches. Green Technology.

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Getting Close to a Treaty!

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

The latest session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) just concluded last week. Since many of our organizations operate as libraries, we note that commercial availability of a book rarely impacts the availability of that book on the shelves of a library.

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Donor Spotlight: Lavelle Fund for the Blind

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Twelve years ago, the Fund made its first grant to Benetech, in support of the then newly launched Bookshare , our accessible online library for people with disabilities that get in the way of reading print, including visual impairments and dyslexia. In 2013, with the most recent (and fourth!)

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Benetech: the Equilibrium Change Machine

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Third, we pioneered a novel interpretation of the copyright exception for serving people with disabilities that is built into the basic law of the United States. Bookshare is terrific, but it’s fundamentally a separate system where a specialized library becomes the primary source of books for its patrons.

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