Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 16, 2011

Statement of Benetech to the 22nd Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at the World Intellectual Property Organization June 15, 2011, Geneva, Switzerland • Greetings from California’s Silicon Valley! Now, more than 30,000 current copyrighted books are available globally on Bookshare to thousands of users. •

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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. That would pretty much defeat the purpose of having a library.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 19, 2013

Benetech, my nonprofit organization operates Bookshare, the largest online library dedicated to serving blind and print disabled people. Our library is unusual, in that our charter is to serve all people with print disabilities of the world, not just those in our country.

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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. However, as the founder of the Bookshare online library, we have a great deal at stake in how the Treaty gets implemented. Works Covered.

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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. Counterproposals have been made, governments have been engaging with rights holders, consumers and NGOs (or not!)

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 7, 2013

Bookshare International Library We’re always thinking about new ways in which Benetech could go deeper and help many more people. Bookshare , our flagship literacy program, is the world’s largest accessible library and currently serves more than 230,000 members with visual and learning disabilities.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Access to information and knowledge is a basic human right and a necessary first step towards personal, economic, and social development. The good news is that there are now unprecedented opportunities to transform the lives of these millions by removing barriers of access to information  —   and this is where you can help.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 3, 2016

We are joining with our peers in the disability and library community in a joint statement to strongly encourage the Senate to ratify the treaty and for Congress to implement the minor legislative changes recommended as part of the package. The creation of Bookshare was made possible because of an enlightened copyright law exception.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2013

The other recipient this year was Kay Ferrell, Professor of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, who won the Medal for her tremendous work with and on behalf of children and youth who are blind and visually impaired. That treaty should replicate the successful copyright exception here in the U.S.

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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

OCTOBER 15, 2012

Benetech’s Bookshare library is living proof that real, transformative change happens through partnerships and by helping people unleash their talents and energies. We blew up the old approaches to converting inaccessible books into accessible equivalents. copyright law. copyright law.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

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. This pilot paved the way for our work in the education field.

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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

DECEMBER 3, 2011

One of these sub-themes is “Accessibility: removing barriers and promoting disability-inclusive development.” Of course, accessibility is right up Benetech’s alley and the focus of our Literacy program. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2010

with print disabilities, with more than 70,000 copyrighted works in our library, the majority of which have been created under the US copyright exception by volunteers, mainly people with disabilities themselves, helping each other. • We now have global permissions for around 8,000 copyrighted books out of our 70,000. •

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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. Our Bookshare online library is continuing to multiply its impact. The Benetech team has already accomplished great things for our users, but there is so much more we can do. But what about everybody else?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 27, 2015

We’re doing a ton of work with partners in India , the first country to ratify it, to allow people in India to take full advantage of India’s now-favorable copyright environment. We also hope to lend our Bookshare online library infrastructure to developing world countries not currently able to build their own online library at this time.

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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. As a result, we quickly became the largest online library for people with print disabilities.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Section 121 of the Copyright Act, also known as the Chafee Amendment (17 U.S.C. Bookshare actively cooperates with the Library of Congress in the provision of Bookshare’s services to people with disabilities, through its National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress (NLS).

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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

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

During that time, we’ve grown from offering one product to offering many products and services, in four program areas: education, human rights, the environment, and, now, tech volunteerism. To explain our approach, let’s look at Bookshare , our accessible online library for people with print disabilities. copyright law.

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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. In 2004, the United States passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act , requiring schools to provide special education services to eligible students.

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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. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

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Tech Soup

AUGUST 16, 2013

Legal liability, copyright infringement and harassment claims. For schools and libraries that offer Internet as well as internal. intranet) access, AUPs are important to protect young users against. to or accessing the network. organization’s data if the user is an employee) when accessing or while.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 23, 2008

Hadley's brand of distance education for the blind (and people who care about blind people) has been adapted to focus on teaching of English in China. I learned a lot about how blind people deal with Chinese: I thought it would be a difficult language to make accessible. It's unusual for a U.S.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 3, 2010

The first part of the problem is that India still has low literacy rates - the 2009 Annual Status of Education Report shows that between classes 1 to 8 only around 40% of children can read a class 2 level text in their own language and an even lower 23% of children can ready easy sentences in English - sentences of the kind "What is your name?"

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 29, 2011

We're really proud of the rapid growth of our Bookshare online library for people with print disabilities. 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! What is the school signup process for Bookshare?

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

We’re against piracy, and have made commitments to authors and publishers to encourage compliance with copyright law. Stopping fund raising and subscription revenue for Bookshare, the largest online library for people who have print disabilities. Bookshare is an online library for people who can’t read standard print books.

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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. Enter the Born Accessible movement.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 18, 2007

Or suppose you were leading a program to educate young people about violent behavior in dating relationships. Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines, tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want. the work of copyright holders.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 8, 2011

We’re against piracy, and have made commitments to authors and publishers to encourage compliance with copyright law. Stopping fund raising and subscription revenue for Bookshare, the largest online library for people who have print disabilities. Bookshare is an online library for people who can’t read standard print books.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 7, 2013

The goal of the treaty is to make it possible for people who are blind, or have other print disabilities, to get access to the books they need for education, employment and inclusion in society--no matter where they live. We are at a point where accessibility can and should be the default mode for all books. under a Treaty.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 10, 2009

The following is the email I received from Kareem Dale in its entirety (and I have his permission to distribute it): Access to information and ideas is essential for personal and professional growth and full engagement in a democratic society. But engagement can be severely limited when information is not available in accessible formats.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 13, 2011

Bookshare Hits 100,000 Members Boy reading at a computer with teacher in the background.Since the beginning of 2009, we’ve tripled the number of people with disabilities Bookshare is serving with our accessible library of ebooks. Department of Education was to serve 100,000 students by the end of our five-year contract in late 2012.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

This time I had three agenda items for my conversations with congressional staff: Advocating for funding for special education. I had a joint meeting (both Republicans and Democrats) with the key Senate Judiciary Committee staff who are the copyright experts, and learned a lot about the process. Student privacy. Enough said!

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