[LINK] USA, Canada and the EU attempt to kill treaty to protect blind people's access to written material

[Jan Whitaker]

At 08:48 PM 29/05/2009, Kim Holburn wrote:

>http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/29/usa-canada-and-the-e.html

Sent to Bill Shorten today:

Dear Mr Shorten, I wish to bring to your attention a current effort 
occuring in WIPO [World Intellectual Property Organisation] regarding 
removing the right of vision impaired persons to access information 
without a copyright breach. The US, the EU, and Australia! among 
others are moving to remove this right in favour of the copyright 
holders. Refer to: 
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/29/usa-canada-and-the-e.html for 
information and background on this situation. It has been a 
longstanding principle that the vision impaired should not be 
deprived of access to information merely for copyright reasons. I am 
not an expert in this area, but am somewhat familiar with it after 
doing work with Vision Australia. I ask you and your staff to discuss 
this position by the govt with colleagues and reconsider the 
position. You or I or our loved ones could lose our sight at any time 
and be deprived of the joy of 'reading' merely due to this proposed 
change. Best regards, Jan Whitaker Berwick VIC PS: I hate forms 
because I am not sure if I'll receive a copy and the info on this 
page does not ascert that I will.

[It's a form thing....]

Here's his link to write to him:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memfeedback.asp?id=ATG

Jan [Thanks to Sylvano for the advice re who]



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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