Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2013

Next month, I will be heading to TOC a couple of days early in order to participate in a W3C Workshop on eBooks and the Open Web Platform, where I will be talking about Social DRM (Digital Rights Management). You can read much more about this in Jim Fruchterman’s blog post, “Upholding the Social Bargain: Bookshare and Copyright Compliance.”

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 15, 2009

Brief Comments on Accessibility Concerns on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) The disability community should be concerned about ACTA for two reasons: At its core it’s an anti-piracy agreement. The digital measures designed to defeat piracy usually end up equating accessibility with piracy.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

We take their files and convert them to the DAISY format which is a digital format designed specifically to create accessible materials for people with print disabilities. We're excited about this trend and the opportunities it creates for the commercial availability of mass market accessible books. Why is this a big deal?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

Our new announcement about the Department granting Bookshare supplemental funding to convert open content textbooks to accessible formats went over very well. We're promising to do highly accessible versions of 80 open content textbooks. Since they are open, we can get them and do the adaptations for accessibility.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2010

A Policy Update from an engineer, Jim Fruchterman of Benetech June 8, 2010 The international copyright negotiations in Geneva around a proposed Treaty for the Visually Impaired (“TVI”) have been steadily heating up. A definition of formats that includes Braille, audio and digital text, but excludes large print and video.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

have been asking about the Treaty of Marrakesh (formal name: The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities. Ultimately, this community should have equal access to all of the books that are needed for education, employment and social inclusion.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

That’s the lobbying position of some companies in the intellectual property field when implementing the new Marrakesh Copyright Treaty. Libraries for people who are blind or dyslexic are the primary source of accessible books in audio, large print or braille. We simply act to ensure the person who needs an accessible book can get it.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2013

Our library is made possible both by a domestic copyright exception that makes it possible for us to add any book requested by a blind person to our library, as well as strong cooperation with publishers who provide many of their books directly to our library for free, including the rights to serve people in certain other countries.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 5, 2013

I’ve been actively advocating for an international copyright exception model that would greatly benefit people with disabilities, as anyone who has read my blog over the years can attest! copyright exception. More to come as we work to ratify—and eventually implement—the treaty, and bring an end to the global accessible book famine!

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Morocco United States Copyright Library 127

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 7, 2013

While we’re extremely proud of our achievements in the field of accessibility and disability rights, we know that we’ve just scratched the surface of what we could possibly do to bolster parity of access to information by people with disabilities. We’re making securing new funding for Bookshare’s international expansion a top priority!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

I’m thrilled to share with you some of the recent amazing impact of Bookshare , a Benetech Global Literacy initiative and the largest accessible online library of copyrighted content for people with print disabilities. a11y accessibility Bookshare Braille DAISY ebooks Global Literacy print disabilities Reading'

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 10, 2009

And that is setting back the cause of people with disabilities who need that kind of access. We have an action by Amazon that sets back years of work to make ebooks accessible. A recent example of this was web site accessibility. pointed out that the authors have long supported disability access. The Textbook problem.

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Amazon Accessibility eBook Problem 100

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

are well versed in new ideas for audience engagement and committed to opening up their institutions to increase public access. Some collections stewards, steeped as they are in professional artifact-protection standards, are reluctant to shift toward the more open version of institutional access that engagement advocates promote.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

We’re operating at the forefront of copyright limitations and exceptions, both in the United States and globally. The recent Indian copyright amendment that creates an exception similar to Section 121 in the United States, which makes it possible for us to set up a Bookshare-style crowd-sourced library in India with local partner NGOs.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

The latest session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) just concluded last week. The first issue is that the treaty would not permit direct access by consumers to international authorized entities.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

Bookshare, Benetech’s pioneering digital library for people with print disabilities, celebrated its 10th birthday last night with a terrific party that was attended by many of our long-time friends and supporters. copyright law. They send Bookshare the same digital book files that they provide to Amazon, Apple or Barnes and Noble.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

Technology currently serves privileged groups through tools that provide access to education, literacy, health, and justice. We want to help lead the charge into a future where the advantages of digital information touch the lives of all people, not just of the richest and most able five percent of humanity.

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Literacy eBook United Kingdom Accessibility 158

Amy Sample Ward

OCTOBER 18, 2010

."" Photographs, Digital Rights & Social Media Events | Geoff Livingston's Blog – Geoff shares a recent example of his attendance at an event where he was photographed and his images shared. And where you stand on the discussion of copyright, digital rights, online content sharing and intellectual property?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 26, 2014

One of their main challenges is that they do not have adequate access to educational materials that are necessary to learn and succeed in school. Accessible ebooks and Bookshare have helped sixth grader Kevin Leong overcome his reading challenges.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 7, 2010

An Insider Reveals How the Latest Hot Books Are Added to Bookshare’s Collection of Accessible Titles A Guest Beneblog by Liz Halperin After working for many years as a volunteer for Bookshare, I became a paid proofreader for the collection about two years ago. I used to think that publishers just sent electronic copies to Bookshare.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Digital and mobile communications are changing the rules about social networks, intellectual property, and the availability of big data, with an overall blurring of the boundaries between state, for-profits, and nonprofits. To explain our approach, let’s look at Bookshare , our accessible online library for people with print disabilities.

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Develop Social Library eBook 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 22, 2009

Bookshare started as the sharing of copyrighted and public domain books in a central repository authorized by the Chafee Amendment by people with print disabilities for their own use. Like every library, members can check out all sorts of books, allowing them access to new worlds for themselves in whatever direction they choose to turn.

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Tech Soup

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

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. gear up to administer standardized tests digitally next year. I see the grand wave of IoT and Big Data combining to generate the copyright issue for the ages. Digital Inclusion.

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News Review Technology Adobe 62

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 9, 2007

Icommons Artist-in-Residency program is seeking artists who create work both in the physical and digital world and who engage with copyright in some way - either by using Creative Commons licenced content as their inspiration, or by licencing their work under CC; or artists who simply challenge the boundaries of copyright law.

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Tech Soup

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

TechSoup's mission is to build a dynamic bridge that enables civil society organizations and changemakers around the world to gain effective access to the resources they need to design and implement technology solutions for a more equitable planet. However, access to the tools isn't enough. Reform Copyright.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 29, 2011

We're up to more than 125,000 users, with over 95,000 books available, and our users are now accessing content at a rate of more than million downloads per year! That's why it's painful to hear about disputes over denying students with very real print disabilities access to these resources. serving students with print disabilities.

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Student Accessibility New Jersey Learning 145

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 4, 2010

Participants were asked to photograph objects and their accession numbers so staff could identify and describe the objects properly. In contrast, the Wikimedians were focused on making cultural content digitally available online using as open a licensing structure as possible. Image verification was a Herculean effort.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 7, 2007

Thank god for remote access! For the content industries, the tools of enclosure (copyright term extension, digital rights management, etc.) The community principles as set for by the founder, artist Anne Focke, took their inspiration from the work of Lewis Hyde. I've been Lewis Hyde fan ever since. second enclosure???--the

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Artist Second Life Audio Law 50

ASU Lodestar Center

JUNE 10, 2011

However, the EIN advertised as 501(c)3 on their website (13-3759639) is one digit off from The Nations Missing Children (13-3759539), suggesting a typo. The one that Lets Bring them Home advertises doesnt actually turn up a registered charity. What Next — Charles Best is "Character Approved" Twitter Updates Powered by Blogger.

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Research Arizona Arkansas Phoenix 92

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2016

From Arkenstone to Bookshare The field of access to books by blind people is where Benetech has twice been the key engine of positive equilibrium change at scale, and we are already working on the third change. Blind people were dependent on sighted people for access to books. These formats now underpin the ebook industry of today.

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Change eBook United States Conservancy 100

Care2

MARCH 13, 2009

Political Leadership in the Digital Era When: Monday, March 16th from 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm: Room Hilton D Description: The digital era requires a new type of leadership. An interactive conversation between past and present elected officials and the audience on political leadership in the digital era. All rights reserved.

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Social Media Interaction Advocacy Online 44

Care2

JULY 15, 2008

Nonprofits who work primarily with policy still should document themselves because they have access to experts on their topic. Most digital cameras today have a movie function and, unless you are planning on making a documentary, that is really all you need. Copyright © 2008, Care2.com All rights reserved.

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Video Social Media Advocacy Case Study 28

ASU Lodestar Center

APRIL 1, 2011

The reality is, we're all bombarded with digital messages and shares and likes and spam. I worked with a nonprofit several years ago, and we had the most success with donors when we actually talked to them. What Next — Charles Best is "Character Approved" Twitter Updates Powered by Blogger.

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Research People Giving Arizona 61

Tech Soup

APRIL 3, 2012

And if it was indeed a danger, how can you as a nonprofit play a larger role in defending digital rights in the future? In the simplest terms, SOPA would've created a "de facto blacklist of sites accused of infringing on copyright," Reitman said. But other threats to digital rights remain.

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Internet Reddit Wikipedia Law 62

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 18, 2007

Take photos with your digital camera and share them on your web site or blog and ideally, in Flickr. You can think of it as having 24/7 access to another users filing cabinet, but each user's collection of bookmarks helps to build an rich knowledge network. the work of copyright holders. Start slow and????

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Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2010

Do you know what the numbers on the copyright page mean? designed epub and Kindle versions of the book on my own (using Adobe InDesign) so I could sell ebooks directly instead of going through CreateSpace's costly digital books portal. Interestingly, I've had several digital sales on my site, but no Kindle sales via Amazon so far.

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Participatory Museum Process Adobe 33

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Given that our goal was being as open as possible, it followed that our license choices were essentially around licenses that allowed for the greatest possible use and re-use because our initial hypothesis was, and continues to be, that being open allows us to fulfil our mission better than a traditional copyright model allows.

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License Participatory Culture India 93