The National Organization of Spanish Blind Persons, ONCE is the Spanish institution providing services to blind and visually impaired persons. This is their statement at WIPO SCCR 19, in both English and Spanish:
In Spanish
La Organización Nacional de Ciegos de España (ONCE) agradece la oportunidad de tomar la palabra en esta importante sesion del SCCR para pedir el apoyo a la propuesta de tratado de la Union Mundial de Ciegos.
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Information for the SCCR at WIPO 14-18 December, 2009.
Mr Chairman,
I would like to take this opportunity, in the framework of our discussions on exceptions and limitations, to inform you about what the European Commission has been doing over the past year and a half and is preparing for the future.
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12:45 pm Geneva, Switzerland.
Today, December 15, 2009 at the 19th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at WIPO, member states started to consider the proposed treaty to facilitate access to copyright materials for people with reading disabilities. Ecuador, Brazil and Paraguay, the sponsors of the treaty briefly presented their proposal. We then had a break for lunch and attended an informal session. On the table right outside of the main room, I found a joint statement dated of SCCR 17 (November 2008) opposing the treaty.
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World Intellectual Property Organization
Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR)
Nineteenth Session
December 14-18, 2009
United States of America Statement on Copyright Exceptions and Limitations for Persons with Print Disabilities
As Delivered
December, 2009
Geneva, Switzerland
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The United States is proud to have a series of specific exceptions and limitations in our copyright law, including for education, libraries, and persons with print disabilities.
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On Monday, December 14, the UNITAID board passed a resolution to establish a Patent Pool for AIDS medicines. The decision caped a dramatic debate on the proposal, which had been before UNITAID since 2006, and had been discussed in other fora since 2002. The following is a statement by KEI on the UNITAID decision, followed by background on the UNITAID patent pool proposal, including a copy of the UNITAID press release.
Statement of James Love, Director of KEI, on the UNITAID Patent Pool:
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There will be new participants at the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (Nineteenth Session) Geneva, December 14 to 18, 2009.
Here is the lists of non-governmental organizations, which have requested to be granted observer status in sessions of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), according to SCCR’s Rules of Procedure (see document SCCR/1/2, paragraph 10).
- African Union of the Blind (AFUB)
- All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB)
- Asociación Civil Tiflonexos – Biblioteca Tiflolibros (Tiflolibros),
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We are distributing this letter (in English and Spanish, with Tiflolibros Argentina) to writers, journalists and authors who support the World Blind Union WIPO treaty proposal to improve access to books in formats accessible to people who are blind, visually impaired or have other disabilities. If you are a writer and you are interested in signing it, contact judit.rius@keionline.org
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On Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 10:42PM (EST), the site Wikileaks, posted this pithy entry on Twitter: “Big Pharma infiltrates WHO Expert Working Group process; WikiLeaks infiltrates Big Pharma“. Continue Reading →
In a recent statement to Wired, USTR tried to justify the secrecy of the ACTA negotiations as follows:
The Administration also recognizes that confidentiality in international negotiations among sovereign entities is the standard practice to enable officials to engage in frank exchanges of views, positions, and specific negotiating proposals, and thereby facilitate the negotiation and compromise that are necessary to reach agreement on complex issues.
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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has offered an amendment to the health care reform bill that would eliminate data exclusivity in cases where duplicating clinical trials involving human subjects would violate Article 20 of the Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human subjects. The relevant article from the Declaration of Helsinki reads as follows:
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