[A2k] L&E and DRM/ TPMs - parking lot analogy

[James Love]

Dear Richard,

The current DMCA exception for reading disabled persons is important,
and useful, even if not as useful as it might be if the exception was
broader than it is today.  The various non-profit organizations that
create accessible works can and do overcome technical protection
measures in order to make accessible copies of works.  Without those
accessible works, people can't read.

Why would people who are blind want to wait for you to get rid of TPMs
before they help themselves?  That might take a long time.  The RNIB UK
sometimes uses a slogan: =E2=80=9CBooks before we are dead.=E2=80=9D

Giving people who are blind or have other disabilities more freedom to
circumvent DRM, and more freedom to share accessible copies of
copyrighted works across borders (including to and from countries where
there is no DMCA), without permission from copyright owners, increases
their freedom, and it therefore increases our freedom, because they are
part of our community.

  Jamie



On Sat, 2009-05-02 Richard M Stallman wrote:
>>There are people who are not blind, or who can read just find now.
>>They have all sort of other concerns.  If you want to hold back people
>>who can't see, for some strategic objective, particular one that has
>>almost no strategic value to your own cause, whatever that is, go
>>ahead, and make your case.

>If you want to help provide access to the blind, please do it in a way
>that won't rebound to the detriment of everyone else's freedom, and
>then I will support it.


> >I think there is a great deal of misunderstanding here about who is
> >    asking for what.  Reading disabled persons are asking for (1) except=
ions
> >    to exclusive rights of copyright owners, and in order to benefit fro=
m
> >    this exception, they are (2) asking for the right to circumvent DRM/=
TPM
> >    regimes.

The right to circumvent DRM is already available in the US, under the
DMCA, for certain cases (including fair use).  It proves to be of
little use unless one can get the _means_ to do it.  Those are usually
not available because the DMCA forbids their distribution.

What will really help blind people -- and the rest of us too -- is the
right to distribute circumvention programs and devices.  That will enable
organizations for the blind to make and distribute accessible copies,
and do so without asking for any special favor from the publishers,
which means they won't have to cater to the demands of those publishers
by imposing their own DRM on the blind people they claim to serve.

--
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.=
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