Abraham Lloyd on the Kindle2/Authors Guild demo in NYC

I am in Montreal right now, and missed the Right Rights Coalition demonstration at the Authors Guild. Manon, Judit and Malini from our office are in NYC at the demonstration, and said it was incredibly moving. Several people at the protest sent reports by tweeter. The most complete was probably Abraham Lloyd. This was his account, with the Tweets organized from his first to last.

http://twitter.com/abrahamlloyd

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Growing Opposition to the Authors’ Guild Request to Remove Text-to-Speech on Kindle2

The groups below represent 15 million Americans who cannot read print because of blindness, dyslexia, spinal cord injury and other print disabilities. Reading disabled persons affected by the Authors’ Guild request to remove the text to speech function on Kindle 2 include school children, the elderly, professionals, university students, returning veterans, and yes, your neighbors, family members and friends.

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WIPO paper on limitations and exceptions to the exclusive rights of patents

The International Bureau has released a 47-paged paper in preparation for the 13th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (23 March-27 March, 2009) entitled Exclusions from patentable subject matter and exceptions and limitations to the rights (SCP/13/3).

In its introduction to the treatment of patent exceptions and public policy, the paper asserts:

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Who are the cleared advisors that have access to secret ACTA documents?

The negotiating text of ACTA and many other documents, including even the lists of participants in the negotiations, are secret. The White House claims the secrecy is required as a matter of national security. But that does not mean the documents are off limits to everyone outside of the government. Hundreds of advisors, many of them corporate lobbyists, are considered “cleared advisors.” They have access to the ACTA documents.

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PhRMA Special 301 submission on Thailand

The following discusses the 2009 PhRMA submission for the USTR Special 301 list on Thailand. Thailand is one of three Asian countries (China, Philippines and Thailand) that were singled out by PhRMA for the harshest treatment. The submission on Thailand covers several topics, including these:

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