[A2k] SCCR 17 final agreed upon text on reading disabled persons

[Mark Perkins lists]

For all European list members:

Surely this is a scandal that should be taken up in national parliaments so
as to push for change in EU position?

----
Mark Perkins MLIS, MCLIP
www.markperkins.info

https://keyserver.pgp.com/


-----Original Message-----
From: a2k-admin@lists.essential.org [mailto:a2k-admin@lists.essential.org]
On Behalf Of James Love
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 7:30 PM
To: a2k
Subject: [A2k] SCCR 17 final agreed upon text on reading disabled persons


http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2008/11/07/sccr17_disabled-text/

Knowledge Ecology Notes
SCCR 17 final agreed upon text on reading disabled persons
7 November 2008

Below is the final agreed upon text for the SCCR 17 on the issue of access
for persons with reading disabilities. There are four sentences, in one
paragraph.

----------
    The Committee acknowledged the special needs of visually impaired
persons and stressed the importance of dealing, without delay and with
appropriate deliberation, with those needs of the blind, visually impaired,
and other reading disabled persons, including discussions at the national
and international level on possible ways and means facilitating and
enhancing access to protected works. This should include analysis of
limitations and exceptions. This should also include the possible
establishment of a stakeholders platform at WIPO, in order to facilitate
arrangements to secure access for disabled persons to protected works. A
number of delegations referred to a paper presented by the World Blind Union
(WBU) and expressed interest in further analyzing it.
---------

I may later write a more detailed comment on what transpired, but here are
some quick thoughts.

The SCCR 18 meeting in the Spring will be very important. By then we expect
to see a formal proposal for a treaty by one or more WIPO member states, and
we also expect to see significant civil society mobilization, including the
disabled community. I will say that the opposition to the proposal for a
treaty for the blind and disabled coming from France and the Europe Member
states (plus Switzerland) was quite shocking to many participants in the
room, and the lack of leadership or opposition among other developed
countries on this issue (including the USA, Canada and Japan), was
appalling. Only New Zealand and Australia among the high income countries
did anything openly helpful in addressing the core concerns of blind,
visually impaired and other disabled persons.

In terms of what the WIPO SCCR did, one should start with the embrace of
IFRRO (the collection society) proposal for "a stakeholders platform at
WIPO." This was the main push by Europe and also the United States.
WIPO, as a UN agency, was dealing with the topic of limitations and
exceptions for blind and other disabled people - a vulnerable population
whose access should be addressed a matter of human rights. IFRRO developed
its proposal without any consultations with the blind or disabled
communities - none at all. And their proposal was opposed by the WBU in the
meeting, partly on the grounds that the was no consultation, and because
IFRRO was on record in the meeting opposing limitations and exceptions for
the blind and disabled. Nonetheless, France and all European Member states
threw their weight behind the IFRRO proposal, and opposed everything the WBU
was asking for. The EU even blocked from the consensus any discussion of the
cross-border delivery of accessible works. It is only because of the
resistance from Latin American, Asian and African countries that the
concerns of the blind and disabled community advanced.

While IFRRO had never even bothered to talk to the WBU or any other disabled
groups, the WBU had petitioned WIPO regularly since 2002 to provide for
harmonization of limitations and exceptions, and to address the
import/export issue, and specifically the intellectual property barriers
that are blocking the development of new global libraries for the blind and
disabled populations. To appreciate how extensive the WBU's presentations to
WIPO were on this topic, see:
http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=213

The SCCR 17 text on disabilities will, in the end, be sufficient to move
this issue forward, and we expect a very important debate in the Spring of
2009, and we fully expect the new Obama government to abandon the alliance
with the EU, in opposition to the blind and disabled community, and do the
right thing, and support a treaty.

Nonetheless, it was an insult and a disgrace that the IFRRO proposal not
only was embraced and advanced in this meeting, without any debate on its
merits or even purpose, but that it was given a higher status in the
decision than was the six year effort by the WBU to deal with an important
copyright issue.

I will close with the comments from one delegation at the end of the
evening. The delegate, from a high income country, had been silent the
entire meeting, but is a country one expects to provide some moral
leadership. I said, "why didn't you speak up? - this is a human rights
issue." She said, "this isn't the human rights commission, -- this is WIPO."
She wasn't being ironic or critical of WIPO. She thought it was natural that
the collection society would come first on this issue. That pretty much
summed things up.

James Love, November 7, 2008

--
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

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