SCCR 17 final agreed upon text on persons with reading disabilities
Below is the final agreed upon text for the SCCR 17 on the issue of access for persons with reading disabilities. There are four sentences, in one paragraph.
Below is the final agreed upon text for the SCCR 17 on the issue of access for persons with reading disabilities. There are four sentences, in one paragraph.
KEI supports work on copyright limitations and exceptions. Like many others, we think that access for disabled persons should be given priority. The World Blind Union (WBU) has petitioned WIPO consistently on this topic since 2002, at SCCR 7. It is time to address the human rights of disabled persons.
KEI asks the SCCR to remove the broadcasting treaty from the agenda until such time as there is greater consensus over the purpose of the treaty.
I’m in Geneva today, at a meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Last evening many people (not only the U.S. residents) were awake listening to the election results. The hangover today here is mostly from a lack of sleep, as the results of the election were not clear until very late (10 pm EST is 4 AM Switzerland time).
Pakistan, on behalf of the Asian Group, gave unequivocal support for the World Blind Union proposal for a WIPO Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons. The Asian Group does not include China and Japan but includes such countries as India, Iran, Pakistan, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and South Korea.
Here is the Asian Group’s specific intervention on the World Blind Union proposal.
The representative from the government of Chile (on behalf of Chile, Nicaragua, Brazil and Uruguay) delivered this very powerful statement this afternoon at WIPO during the Seventeenth Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR).
Chile proposed that the WIPO secretariat distributes a questionnaire on copyright exceptions and limitations between all WIPO Member States in order to continue with the information gathering process. Chile remarked on the good experience with the APEC survey on exceptions and limitations.
It is Tuesday, November 4, 2008, and the WIPO SCCR will hear from Judith Sullivan on copyright limitations and exceptions for the blind.
Judith Sullivan begins with a formal presentation of her February 2007 WIPO Study on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions for the Visually Impaired (SCCR/15/7). The presentation was quite good, and helpful, and followed the slides that WIPO has on its web page.
ONCE, the National Organization of the Spanish Blind, has written to the Spanish government requesting the support for the WBU WIPO treaty proposal.
ONCE argues that although Spain has a good exception for the blind, the WBU proposal will allow other governments to amend their copyright laws in a similar manner and that this proposal will also have benefits for the trans-border distribution of works. The letter highlights that the WBU treaty proposal will allow the creation of a global platform for the distribution of accessible documents.
At least sixteen non-governmental organizations from India representing the blind, the visual impaired, the disabled and the public interest sent a petition to India’s Registrar of Copyrights on November 3, 2008 expressing their support for the World Blind Union proposal for a WIPO Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons. Here is the letter below in full.
Mr. G. R. Raghavender
I have been asked to elaborate on the relationship between the Medical Innovation Prize Fund (S.2210, 110th Congress) and the WTO TRIPS Agreement.
For centuries, innovation inducement prizes have been suggested as a mechanism to stimulate investments in a wide range of topics. (See, for example, Selected Innovation Prizes and Reward Programs, KEI Research Note 2008:1). During most of this period, the patent system has also existed.
According to a note sent to KEI, CNIB in Canada considers the WBU proposal for a WIPO Treaty for the reading disabled to be “the most critical component of achieving true equality through the development of a ‘Global Library’!. This is a letter that Jim Sanders, the President and Chief Executive Officer of CNIB, sent to the Canada delegation to WIPO.