[A2k] WIPO Director General Pledges Support for India's Visually Impaired Community

Fri Nov 13 11:09:14 2009

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 4:15 PM, Pescod, Dan <Dan.Pescod@rnib.org.uk> wrote=
:
> Forgive me if I am missing something, but I see nothing in this item to
> suggest that Gurry backed the treaty proposal at all, even ambiguously.
> Rather, it seems that he was silent on that and used the umbrella term
> "VIP initiative" to describe work to help increase access to books for
> blind and partially sighted people.

Granted:

"According to WIPO, the conference organized by the VIP community in
cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11,
2009, and reaffirmed WIPO's commitment to supporting international
attempts to improve access to copyright protected works by visually
impaired persons (VIPs).
"Let me assure you that this is a priority area for the World
Intellectual Property Organization," Gurry said.
More than 314 million blind or visually impaired people around the world
stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to
current technological realities"

is not a commitment to the treaty. However the mention of "a more
flexible copyright regime (etc)" might be construed as a step in the
right direction, maybe?

Best

Claude

> -----Original Message-----
> From: a2k-admin@lists.essential.org
> [mailto:a2k-admin@lists.essential.org] On Behalf Of Pranesh Prakash
> Sent: 12 November 2009 11:48
> To: A2K Discussion List; Commons Law
> Cc: Nirmita Narasimhan; Kajal Bhardwaj; Dipendra Manocha
> Subject: [A2k] WIPO Director General Pledges Support for India's
> Visually Impaired Community
>
> Dear all,
> WIPO seems to be giving all kinds of signal that the Treaty for the
> Blind is a very step forward for them.
>
>
> Regards,
> Pranesh
>
> http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=3D7785&lang=3Den
>
> 12/11/2009 07:07 GMT
> ag-IP-news
> WIPO Director General Pledges Support for India's Visually Impaired
> Community
>
> GENEVA - The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director
> General Francis Gurry met representatives of India's visually impaired
> (VIP) community at a conference on the "Right to Read of persons with
> print disabilities and copyright challenges".
>
> According to WIPO, the conference organized by the VIP community in
> cooperation with the Government of India in New Delhi on November 11,
> 2009, and reaffirmed WIPO's commitment to supporting international
> attempts to improve access to copyright protected works by visually
> impaired persons (VIPs).
>
> "Let me assure you that this is a priority area for the World
> Intellectual Property Organization," Gurry said.
>
> More than 314 million blind or visually impaired people around the world
> stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to
> current technological realities. Individuals with reading impairment
> often need to convert information into Braille, large print, audio,
> electronic and other formats using assistive technologies.
>
> It is estimated that only 5% of published books in developed countries
> are converted into formats accessible to the reading impaired. =C2=A0In
> India, however, only 0.5% of works are published in accessible formats.
> =C2=A0This has an adverse impact on the educational and employment
> opportunities of the country's nearly 70 million reading impaired
> citizens.
>
> While, today, sighted individuals enjoy unprecedented access to
> copyright-protected content, in some contexts, social, economic,
> technological and legal factors, including the operation of copyright
> protection systems, can combine to seriously impede access to such works
> by the blind or other reading impaired persons. =C2=A0Widespread use of
> digital technologies, in particular, has prompted reconsideration of the
> question of how to maintain a balance between the protection available
> to copyright owners, and the needs of specific user groups, such as
> reading impaired persons.
>
> During the meeting, members of the Indian VIP community endorsed WIPO's
> role in steering the VIP Initiative at the international level. Gurry
> reaffirmed his personal commitment to the specific needs of this
> community, particularly in developing and least-developed countries: =C2=
=A0He
> said innovation and affordability are key considerations when addressing
> the specific requirements of the VIP in developing countries.
>
> To move forward on these questions, Gurry noted, we will need to take
> join ranks with UN partners, namely the World Health Organization (WHO),
> the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
> (UNESCO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Office of
> the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), among
> others, to make best use of the expertise and skills that are available.
>
> The ITU for example, is particularly well placed to provide important
> technological inputs in the field of telephony and communications and to
> foster public-private partnerships in this area.
>
> Gurry welcomed India's readiness to test the prototype guidelines for
> trusted intermediaries recently adopted by the WIPO Stakeholders'
> Platform. The Director General said that WIPO was ready to explore
> options to support training/capacity building activities in India for
> VIPs within the framework of the VIP initiative.
>
> The New Delhi meeting reviewed a series of operational arrangements that
> could enable fast track access to certain copyright-protected works,
> particularly educational materials, in local Indian languages. It also
> focused on the need to incorporate the necessary flexibilities in the
> Indian Copyright Act 1957 for the benefit of print impaired persons.
>
> Representatives of key organizations such as the National Institute for
> the Visually Handicapped (NIVH), the Regional Resource Centre of the
> Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY), the Centre for Internet
> and Society and the Federation of Publishers' & Booksellers'
> Associations in India presented their views and concerns on the subject.
>
> The meeting was opened to a larger audience of authors, publishers,
> collective management organizations and librarians, among others.
> India's former Ambassador of India to the United Nations in Geneva,
> Swashpawan Singh, honorary advisor on the VIP Initiative to the Director
> General of WIPO, also participated in the discussions.
>
> --
> Pranesh Prakash
> Programme Manager
> Centre for Internet and Society
> W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283
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