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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. We hope that many other countries will follow India’s ratification. Its signature period has now ended.

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Bookshare without Borders: #1/3

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Bookshare International Library We’re always thinking about new ways in which Benetech could go deeper and help many more people. We’re making securing new funding for Bookshare’s international expansion a top priority! We have built Bookshare International upon three principles. My next two blog posts will be on this topic.

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Mobilizing Impact at the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Judy Heumann (left) moderating the panel on empowering the world''s billion people with disabilities On the second day of the CGI Annual Meeting, I announced Benetech’s Commitment to Action : Leveraging Technology to Bring Books to the Blind in India. Our commitment was selected as an exemplary approach to addressing a global challenge.

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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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Accessibility Excitement in Geneva

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Getting some kind of licensing deal is critically important, because it will take many years for the Marrakesh Treaty to be fully implemented with its copyright exceptions. In particular, they wanted the group to endorse that a copyright exception under Marrakesh exclude works that are commercially available.

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Donor Spotlight: Lavelle Fund for the Blind

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

We first extended Bookshare services internationally in 2008 with the launch of Bookshare in India. Of course, in India and other developing countries, the gap is even larger. As part of this project, we are working with our lead Indian partner, the DAISY Forum of India, as well as other Indian disability organizations.

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My remarks just made at WIPO today

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

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. •