[A2k] UN Internet Governance Forum (Hyderabad): T he WIPO stakeholders’ platform on securing ac cess to protected works for the Visually Impair ed

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2008/12/04/un-internet-governance-forum-hyde=
rabad-the-wipo-stakeholders-platform/

UN Internet Governance Forum (Hyderabad): The WIPO stakeholders’
platform on securing access to protected works for the Visually Impaired

The 3rd session of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is meeting from
3-6 December 2008 in Hyderabad, India. According to the conference
website, Hyderabad is

     known for its rich history, culture and architecture representing
its unique character as a meeting point for North and South India, and
its multilingual culture, both geographically and culturally. Also
known as The City of Nizams and The City of Pearls, Hyderabad is today
one of the most developed cities in the country and a modern hub of
information technology, ITES, and biotechnology.

With over 90 parallel workshops taking place over four days in the
glittering glass palace of the Hyderabad International Convention
Centre, keeping abreast of the IGF’s work related to inter alia, open
standards, government procurement, access to knowledge, privacy,
climate change, cyber-crimes and digital inclusion is a daunting task.
KEI’s involvement in co-convening three workshops related to open
standards through our participation in the Dynamic Coalition on Open
Standards will be detailed in subsequent posts.

On the first day of the IGF in India, I was afforded the opportunity
to attend a workshop entitled “Overcoming Obstacles of Effective
Digital Education.” Speakers on this panel included Nathaniel Gleicher
(Yale Information Society Project), Geidy Lung (World Intellectual
Property Organization), Hong Xue (Beijing Normal University), Virginia
Paque (DiploFoundation) and Eddan Katz (Electronic Frontier
Foundation). Nathaniel Gleicher highlighted the importance of scoping
when addressing barriers to digital education. He noted that as
society develops solutions to the roadblocks that digital education
faces it needs to

     ensure that those solutions are flexible enough to allow the
continued expansion of non-traditional educational frameworks.
Solutions built around traditional concepts like a classroom or a
physical school, for instance, will allow traditional education to
expand its use of digital techniques, but not allow new forms of
education to develop, which is one of the areas where the potential of
digital education is most exciting.

Geidy Lung from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
presented her organization’s perspective on overcoming obstacles to
effective digital education. She noted that copyright provides a
“great tool to increase access to educational materials” particular
through the disseminating power of the internet which bore testament
to the convergence of digital technologies.

With respect to international copyright treaties, Ms Lung cited the
Berne Convention as an example of a Treaty that offered flexibilities
to countries to tailor according to their respective needs. She
cautioned that in envisioning minimum standards for limitations and
exceptions to copyright, a “one size fits all approach” should be
eschewed noting that fair use, fair dealing and voluntary exceptions
formed part of a broad array of options available to Member States.

On the work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights
(SCCR), she noted the Committee’s work on limitations and exceptions
with respect to the visually handicapped, library and educational
communities. She reminded the audience of the Committee’s decision to
establish a “stakeholders’ platform at WIPO, in order to facilitate
arrangements to secure access for disabled persons to protected works”
including an “analysis of limitations and exceptions” for the blind.
When your blogger asked Ms. Lung if she could provide information on
the modalities involved in the establishment of the stakeholders
platform, she responded by noting that this platform would be
comprised of representatives from the visually impaired community, the
publishers and collective management organizations. The terms of
reference for the platform would be drafted by the stakeholders’
platform and would be facilitated by the WIPO Secretariat; the
platform is expected to meet at the beginning of 2009. In conclusion,
Ms. Lung emphasized that inculcating a healthy respect for copyright
in tandem with a robust limitations and exceptions regime would
facilitate access to digital education.

Posted in Access to knowledge, Copyright, Reading Disabled. Tagged
with Hyderabad, igf, Internet Governance Forum, Treaty for the
Visually Impaired, wipo, World Blind Union.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997