[A2k] Daily Kos: Wanted: Kossacks to twist Obama's arm (w/ poll)

[Manon Ress]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/29/83125/9083?new=true

Wanted: Kossacks to twist Obama's arm (w/ poll)
by Morus
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Fri May 29, 2009 at 05:48:02 AM PDT

Cory Doctorow has written this piece for Boing Boing, explaining that
there is an historic treaty being debated at the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (or WIPO) in Geneva right now.

The treaty would, for the first time, be used to protect the interests
of copyright users (in this case the blind and partially sighted,
those with dyslexia, or who have physical impediments to reading) not
just the copyright owners.

The USA, the EU, Canada are being joined by Norway, Australia, New
Zealand and (I kid you not) the Vatican in opposing the Treaty. They
are blocking a set of harmonized exceptions that would ensure that
copyrighted material is made available for the disabled.

In general, I tend to be in favour of rights for the disabled, and
against bolstering copyright protections for owners, so I thought I
would share this with other people I suspect might feel the same way.

***************************************************************************
Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673