Knowledge Ecology International

We are very happy with the agreement. There were a few areas where the treaty could have been better, but these are areas of minor quibbles. The first order issues all went in favor of blind persons. The treaty will provide a dramatic and massive improvement in access to reading materials for persons in common languages, such as English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Arabic, and it will provide the building blocks for global libraries to service blind persons. Continue Reading →

Attached here is the text from Committee 1, which now goes to the drafting committee for a technical scrub, and which then will be formally approved on Thursday, and signed on Friday.

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Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities

Marrakech, June 17 to 28, 2013

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Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities
Marrakech, June 17 to 28, 2013

DRAFT TEXT OF AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY ON LIMITATIONS AND EXCEPTIONS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS/PERSONS WITH PRINT DISABILITIES

INFORMAL CONSOLIDATION PREPARED BY SECRETARIAT, June 25, 2013, 10:00am
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John E. Miller provided this OCR version of the text that was downloaded from IP-Watch.

Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities
Marrakech, June 17 to 28, 2013

DRAFT TEXT OF AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY ON LIMITATIONS AND EXCEPTIONS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERSONS/PERSONS WITH PRINT DISABILITIES

INFORMAL CONSOLIDATION PREPARED BY SECRETARIAT, June 22,2013 Continue Reading →

Knowledge Ecology International is holding a side event in Marrakesh on 24 June 2013 at 2:00 PM in Karam 4 at the Palais des congrès entitled, “Views of observers on the hot button issues contained in the Marrakesh Treaty Text”.

Moderator:
Krista Cox (Staff attorney, KEI)

Speakers:

Maryanne Diamond (President, World Blind Union)

Carlo Scollo Lavizzari (Attorney, International Association of Scientific Technical and Medical Publishers)

Pranesh Prakash (Policy Director, Center for Internet and Society)

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In February 2013, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reached a very difficult compromise of the broader copyright issues that were blocking progress on a treaty on copyright exceptions for blind persons. As part of that compromise, the negotiators agreed to this text:

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Attached is an electronic copy of a FOIA received from USPTO, of email messages sent by MPAA lobbyists to the USPTO, about the WIPO negotiations on a treaty for copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities. (Copy here). (Now with OCR, courtesy of John Miller).

The FOIA request covered:

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Attached below are the current proposals on the so called “Berne Gap.”

AF Group: Any Contracting Party which is not a member of the Berne Convention or other relevant international treaties shall ensure consistent with its own legal system and practices, that accessible format copies are not reproduced, distributed or made available to non-beneficiary persons.

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On 18 June 2013, 170 Members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama criticizing India for its “intellectual property climate.” In particular, the letter criticizes recent decisions in the Indian courts, including a specific attack on India’s first compulsory license granted on Nexavar/sorafenib. Continue Reading →

This was just passed out upstairs. There is now a proposal on TPMs by Australia, Switzerland, Argentina, Ecuador, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Holy See, Japan, India, African Group, Guatemala, Bangladesh, China, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, to address TPMs with a single sentence, and it is quite good:

Proposal by Australia/Switzerland/Argentina/Ecuador/Canada/Chile/Brazil/Holy See/Japan/India/African Group/Guatemala/Bangladesh/China/Kenya/South Africa/Morocco

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