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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.

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Why We're Blacking Out Sites: PIPA and SOPA

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Copyright hawks like Rupert Murdoch and the MPAA have attacked this movement as being for piracy, against jobs, and dangerous. Like almost all libraries, we're scrupulous in following the law, because we're serving incredibly important communities. But, we're not for piracy.

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Accessibility Excitement in Geneva

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

There was also an associated effort called the Trusted Intermediary Global Accessible Resources (TIGAR) project, to ease the exchange of accessible book files between libraries for the blind and print disabled. But, the Treaty does lean much more in the direction of a copyright exception without a commercial exemption.

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Big Meeting on the Treaty this Week!

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

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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Ratify Marrakesh!

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

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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Towards Global Access for the Print Disabled

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

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. The Proposals A. Joint Recommendation Proposal (US-JR). The African Union Proposed Treaty (“AUPT”).

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Making the Book Truly Accessible for All Students

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) selected our successful Bookshare library as the provider of accessible materials to every student in the U.S. with a legally qualifying print disability per the Chafee Amendment to the Copyright Act. There are some 7.5 million students (15% of the U.S.

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