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Reply Comments on the Proposed Treaty for Access to Copyrighted Works

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

We filed the following comments to the Copyright Office's request for comments on issues about access for people with print disabilities. Many of the comments critical of the proposed treaty come from parties that object in principle to copyright exceptions, rather than having a direct stake in the issue at hand.

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Copyright treaty in Geneva Advances!

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

I was part of an expert panel that drafted the original proposed treaty. Bookshare pretty much has been made possible by the Chafee Amendment, a copyright exception provision in U.S. Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay joined together to propose that WIPO consider this treaty.

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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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Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at WIPO

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

I'm here in Geneva for the 20th Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights meeting. This is the international forum for discussing copyright issues, and it is the body considering the Treaty for the Visually Impaired (TVI).

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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. Today, we're joining what is probably the largest online protest in history , by blacking out significant portions of the Benetech website, as well as our Martus and HRDAG human rights websites.

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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. So, in the meanwhile, we will need to rely on licenses: permissions agreements.

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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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