Posted on 09/20/2010 12:33:05 PM PDT by epithermal
GENEVA (AP) — Stevie Wonder pressed global copyright overseers on Monday to help blind and visually impaired people access millions of science, history and other audiobooks, which they cannot read in electronic form.
The blind singer told the U.N.'s 184-nation World Intellectual Property Organization that more than 300 million people who "live in the dark" want to "read their way into light," and the current copyright system denies them an equal opportunity.
The current legal framework means that institutes for the blind in different countries may be required to make multiple audiobook versions of the same work, said Richard Owens, WIPO's director of copyright and electronic commerce.
Owens said this leads to higher costs that are passed on to the listeners. It also limits access to blind and partially blind people in poor countries, which cannot afford to make their own versions of everything from science textbooks to best-sellers, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at q13fox.com ...
lol........................
fwiw...
!!!!!!!!!
The only thing the UN should be urged to do is to the leave the US...pronto!
They ywere playing tennis.
Hey Stevie. Last time I checked, the U.N. wasn’t running the world just yet.
The blind singer told the U.N.'s 184-nation World Intellectual Property Organization that more than 300 million people who "live in the dark" want to "read their way into light," and the current copyright system denies them an equal opportunity.Apparently no one has read the articles to him regarding the current campaign by Righthaven LLC and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Thanks epithermal.
I suppose a fellow can’t be expected to fight all possible global battles against legal-but-chintzy practices in the IP field.
There’s already been global arm wrestling with the US copyright system which has helped result in such things as fantastic Mickey Mouse copyright lifespans. It hasn’t all been in the direction of easing strictures that eat into the avowed purpose of advancing the arts.
Wonder appears to be encouraging policies of not requiring licensing terms to be any more burdensome for producing audio versions of books for the blind than for producing print versions of them.
He would really show the spirit if he would donate all royalties from his proposed song of complaint to a national or international foundation for the blind.
Beats workin’.
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