[A2k] Re: [Upd-discuss] Fwd: Blind Groups Sue ASU flor Kindle Use

[Norbert Bollow]

Federico Heinz <fheinz@vialibre.org.ar> wrote:
> On 29/06/2009, Claude Almansi wrote:
> > And if these universities are forced to give up adopting the Kindle,
> > that will be a first step against a threatening Kindle monopoly.
>
> Well, this pretty much confirms that this lawsuit is not about things that
> concern us (access to knowledge), and as such does not represent an
> opportunity for us.

Federico, don't you agree that the freedom of access to knowledge is
threatened by the risk that through the "Kindle", Amazon might succeed
in creating for itself effectively a gatekeeper role with regard to
access to knowledge?

What we need to do in order to be successful, is to build a broad
alliance of various interest groups which all care about one or
more aspects of access to knowledge.  Accessibility to people with
disabilities is one such aspect.  Such an alliance will succeed in
turning the tide of international law if and only if we succeed in
building relationships of collaboration, trust and mutual support
between the diverse interest groups.

When an aspect of this struggle is not an opportunity to directly
push forward those aspects of access to knowledge which are your
primary area of concern, you can still use this topic area as an
opportunity for building and strengthening relationships with other
interest groups.

With a broad alliance, we can succeed.  If we allow the Access To
Knowledge movement to become divided, we will all fail to achieve
our various objectives.

Greetings,
Norbert

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