[A2k] IFRRO statement at WIPO on accessible reading materials for the blind in a trusted environment
Chris Friend
king.henry@btinternet.com
Thu Nov 6 12:15:10 2008
Dear All,
Furthermore the WBU is receiving information from a number of sources that
currently the vast majority of all accessible books are being published
under E & L rather than through licensing.
E & L and further explorations with IPA and IFRRO must proceed in parallel
with all concerned jointly committed to achieving solutions resulting in a
considerable uplift in published accessible titles up from 5% as at present
to significant milestones of 25% by 20?? And 40% by 20??
That is the way that we must think and must go.
Chris Friend
Chair WBU Copyright and R2R Working Group
-----Original Message-----
From: a2k-admin@lists.essential.org [mailto:a2k-admin@lists.essential.org]
On Behalf Of Pescod, Dan
Sent: 06 November 2008 12:31
To: James Love; a2k
Cc: Liedes Jukka
Subject: RE: [A2k] IFRRO statement at WIPO on accessible reading materials
for the blind in a trusted environment
Dear all,
The World Blind Union is very concerned by the idea that discussions should
replace work on a treaty.
We strongly believe it is important to engage with rights holders and
publishers. If we lived in an ideal world, publishers would publish in
accessible formats in the first place, and we would not need to come to WIP=
O
and work on a treaty. However, at best only 5% of works are published in
accessible formats - a figure that has not improved in the last few years
despite our efforts to raise awareness of the problem.
We believe that both work on the treaty and work with rights holders should
proceed in parallel. Work on one does not negate the need for work on
another. We have already been meeting with IPA and others to explore ways
that we can organise a good "trusted intermediary solution". We will be
pursuing this in January next year.
To quote George Gerscher on this list (I trust George will waive his
copyright!):
"Why would the two activities be mutually exclusive? I mean the WBU
copyright exception should be the fallback when the materials are not
available through the publisher's accessible publishing strategies."
We agree. And surely a clear international exceptions r=E9gime would underp=
in,
not undermine, a move to create a really top class accessible global
library.
In the USA Bookshare works with publishers to get agreement to export works
abroad. But it has only got this agreement for a small amount of its total
collection. If our proposed treaty had already been in place, print disable=
d
people outside the USA would have been able to access ALL Bookshare's
library NOW, rather than still be waiting. Don't forget, most of Bookshare'=
s
collection is made under US Copyright exceptions. We want to extend this
model, which works, to the whole world.
Stopping work on the treaty now would cause many years more delay. Print
disabled kids's education would unnecessarily suffer, as would disabled
people's access to culture, information and enjoyment that the rest of us
enjoy and can take for granted. This would run counter to the UN Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which all group B countries hav=
e
signed.
If group B really means business when it says it wants to help print
disabled people to access books, we believe it must therefore support work
on the treaty. We would be happy to work with all countries on the detail o=
f
the treaty text, and accept that they will need time to consider it
carefully. We are more than happy to also work with rights holders, the
European Commission and others, on solutions to help end the "book famine"
in tandem with work on the treaty.
We therefore urge Jukka Liedes and his group B colleagues to recommend
therefore that the treaty be on the next SCCR agenda as a substantive item.
Dan Pescod
-----Original Message-----
From: a2k-admin@lists.essential.org [mailto:a2k-admin@lists.essential.org]
On Behalf Of James Love
Sent: 06 November 2008 10:15
To: a2k
Cc: Liedes Jukka
Subject: [A2k] IFRRO statement at WIPO on accessible reading materials for
the blind in a trusted environment
This morning at the WIPO SCCR 17, the International Federation of
Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) has passed out a statement on the
promotion of accessible reading materials for the blind in a trusted
environment.
The European Commission has pushed this hard in their morning intervention.
Basically, IFRRO is seeking to stop consideration of the WBU proposal for a
treaty. They want to WIPO to "launch a platform of stakeholder
consultations to develop a roadmap for ensuring access for the blind and
visually impaired."
The roadmap would include "a set of best practice guidelines and/or a sampl=
e
agreement in order to facilitate the greater availability of accessible
reading materials for the blind and visually impaired in a trusted and
secure environment."
This appears to be the form of the resistance of the treaty proposal.
The collection societies and book publishers would be in a position to
dictate the terms of the distribution of works in developing countries, to
address remuneration issues, and to avoid dealing with harmonization of
limitations and exceptions. At the same time, the Group B countries backin=
g
this will claim they are helping blind and other reading disabled persons.
Today Jukka Liedes, the SCCR chair for life, will be drafting some tenative
recommendations on how to proceed on the SCCR work program on L&E, for
distribution tomorrow morning.
Jamie
--
James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org | mailto:james.love at keionline.org
Wk: +1.202.332.2671 | US Mobile +1.202.361.3040 | Geneva Mobile
+41.76.413.6584
_______________________________________________
A2k mailing list
A2k@lists.essential.org
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k
--
DISCLAIMER:
NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments is
confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient
you should not use, disclose, distribute or copy any of the content of it o=
r
of any attachment; you are requested to notify the sender immediately of
your receipt of the email and then to delete it and any attachments from
your system.
RNIB endeavours to ensure that emails and any attachments generated by its
staff are free from viruses or other contaminants. However, it cannot
accept any responsibility for any such which are transmitted.
We therefore recommend you scan all attachments.
Please note that the statements and views expressed in this email and any
attachments are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those
of RNIB.
RNIB Registered Charity Number: 226227
Website: http://www.rnib.org.uk
This message has been scanned for viruses by BlackSpider MailControl -
www.blackspider.com _______________________________________________
A2k mailing list
A2k@lists.essential.org
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k