Beneblog: Technology Meets Society
SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
Benetech's largest social enterprise is the Bookshare online library for people who are blind or otherwise disabled when it comes to reading print. copyright law. The publishing industry and disability organizations both agreed on this provision of copyright law. At Benetech, our commitment is to uphold that social deal.
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
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.
Beneblog: Technology Meets Society
JULY 9, 2018
I believe it is a combination of copyright exceptions and business model innovations. For the content of books, this flexibility is expressed in ideas like public domain, when the copyright owned by the author or publisher ends at some point. I love to hark back to Thomas Jefferson’s take on ideas. “He My idea was completely legal!
Beneblog: Technology Meets Society
AUGUST 7, 2013
However, as the founder of the Bookshare online library, we have a great deal at stake in how the Treaty gets implemented. First, it makes creating a national domestic copyright exception an obligation of countries that ratify the Treaty. What’s in it; what does it mean; how does it affect Bookshare members?
Beneblog: Technology Meets Society
JULY 15, 2014
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. The Treaty will take effect only after 20 ratifications are presented to WIPO.
Beneblog: Technology Meets Society
FEBRUARY 18, 2013
The goal of the Treaty is to make a copyright exception for the blind and other people with disabilities that stop them from reading print, and to make import and export of accessible content legal. Bureaucratic barriers to utilizing a copyright exception, as proposed by some publishers, makes the cost even greater.
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