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The Case for Copyright Exceptions and Fair Use

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

For on January 17, 1984, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that consumers could tape their favorite TV shows and watch them later without the copyright holder’s consent. 417 (1984), also known as the “ Betamax case ”, is a landmark copyright precedent that has had enormous implications for the media economy. of America v.

Copyright 196
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Bringing Millions of Books to Billions of People: Making the Book Truly Accessible

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Today, we are poised at a moment in time where we can transcend the limitations of past book technologies and bring the power of books to all humans. However, as a technology, printed books come with serious challenges for some communities (like blind people) that technology can unlock. Love of the print book. We can do better!

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Tribute to My Mentor

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

He considered himself a “problem-solving lawyer” and warned me against getting involved with “problem-creating lawyers!” As the prototypical technology social enterprise, Benetech became one of the first organizations using technology to solve social problems rather than seeking to make maximum financial returns.

Mentoring 167
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Fascinating Meeting at the Copyright Office

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Last Friday I spent almost two and a half hours in a wide-ranging conversation with Maria Pallante of the Copyright Office (and two other folks whose full names I didn't write down). copyright exemption for serving the print disabled is commonly called the Chafee Amendment: Section 121 of copyright law. copyright law.

Copyright 104
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Increasing Accessible Publishing Globally

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

The world has finally moved beyond just electronically creating books that are then distributed as ordinary print books to actually delivering digital ebooks. In technical terms, this means that the next version of the DAISY format, version 4, will be the same as EPUB3, the main format used by commercial publishers of ebooks.

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Social DRM: It’s About Equal Access for All

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

There is no better place to engage with colleagues about new technologies, changing business models, fresh ideas, and shared standards. 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).

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Accessibility Excitement in Geneva

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Bookshare’s role was mixed: we didn’t end up attending many of these meetings and critiqued early efforts that were crippled by heavy-handed publisher influence, although we did propose at one point to supply technology to TIGAR based on Bookshare. My biggest argument was the “library with holes” problem.