[A2k] WIPO's SCCR meeting on copyright limitations and exceptions

[Norbert Bollow]

Chris Friend <king.henry@btinternet.com> wrote:

> Another move in this direction would also be for WIPO to publish on their
> website their draft model law on Copyright which almost certainly would
> lead to a wording convergence of different jurisdictions.

Regarding this idea I'm scared that the copyright industry (especially
organizations representing music publishers and the film industry)
might have so much influence on the text of such a model law that the
net effect might be more harmful than helpful.

Note that in order to make a textual electronic document accessible to
persons with visual disabilities, it is not enough to have the relevant
statuary exception from copyright.  You also need to be able, both from
the practical and from the legal perspective, to reverse-engineer and
break any DRM systems that would otherwise prevent you from doing what
is necessary.

While it is far from perfect, the recently-adopted revision of the
Swiss copyright law can serve as an example of how these important
features can be implemented in a copyright law while still conforming
to the "WIPO internet treaties".

Greetings,
Norbert.


--
Norbert Bollow <nb@bollow.ch>                      http://Norbert.ch
President of the Swiss Internet User Group SIUG    http://SIUG.ch
Working on establishing a non-corrupt and
truly /open/ international standards organization  http://OpenISO.org