Second round of public submissions to WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing
November 17, 2009
The American Council of the Blind (ACB) & the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) comments on treaty for access
The American Council of the Blind (ACB) and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) submitted their comments in response to a Notice of Inquiry put forth by the United States Copyright Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). ACB is a leading U.S. consumer organization of blind or visually impaired individuals. Access to information is a critical area of interest for ACB, and expanding the availability of accessible format materials is viewed as highly beneficial to the blindness community in the United States and throughout the world. Continue Reading
LCA, EFF, and COSLA filed comments regarding the treaty to facilitate access and sharing for people with reading disabilities.
The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) consists of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries.
Collectively, the ALA, ACRL and ARL represent over 139,000 libraries in the United States employing approximately 350,000 librarians and other personnel.
Benetech & Bookshare file with LOC and USPTO on WIPO treaty for reading disabilities
Today Benetech, a leading Silicon Valley technology nonprofit and operator of the Bookshare online library for people with print disabilities submitted comments to the US Copyright Office and the USPTO on the topic of access to copyrighted works for people with print disabilities. Here are the major points, the submission is attached at the end of this blog.
KEI, ICDRI, AHEAD, NYBIDA and Lighthouse file comments on WIPO treaty for reading disabilities
Today five groups filed the attached comments to the U.S. Copyright Office and the USPTO regarding the WIPO draft proposal to facilitate access to copyrighted works for persons, who are blind, have visual impairments and other reading disabilities in response to the Federal Register Notice of October 13, 2009.
The comments were signed by
- Dr. Manon Ress, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
Daily Calendar for USTR head Ambassador Ron Kirk, for May to September 2009
On September 11, 2009, KEI submitted a FOIA request for the daily calendar of USTR head Ambassador Ron Kirk. On Friday afternoon, November 6, 2009, we received a response to that FOIA. This complements our earlier FOIA which covered his calendar from March 20 to May 1, 2009.
Missing Safeguards in ACTA present risks to consumers in the United States, KEI/PK letter to Congress
November 9, 2009
Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman
Senator Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Max Baucus, Chairman
Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member
Senate Finance Committee
Representative John Conyers, Chairman
Representative Lamar Smith, Ranking Member
House Committee on the Judiciary
Representative Henry Waxman, Chairman,
Representative Joe Barton, Ranking Member
House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Representative Charles Rangel, Chairman
Representative Dave Camp, Ranking Member
House Committee on Ways and Means
ACTA for beginners
ACTA is a beefed up version of the WTO TRIPS enforcement sections, without the balance and safeguards of the agreement as whole.
- The ACTA has ignored or left out the safeguards in TRIPS Articles 1, 6, 7, 8, 40 and 44.2.
- The ACTA has refashioned in a more restrictive and anti-consumer way Articles 41, 44.1, 45, 46,47, 50, most of Section 4, and Article 61.
The ACTA Leak is useful, but there are still plenty of secrets
This is a note about the leaked ACTA documents, that have been reported now by several news organizations and bloggers.*
On September 30, 2009, the EU wrote a three page memo on the Internet chapter of ACTA. This is about a week after the USTR held a secret meeting with selected corporate lobbyists and lawyers to debate the ACTA Internet under terms of a tough non-disclosure agreement.
Positive outcome reached at WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement while ACTA looms in the East
While the 6th Round of negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is taking place in Seoul, Republic of Korea from November 4-6, 2009, the 5th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) met from November 2-4, 2009.