“Who on earth would oppose a treaty to facilitate access to information and knowledge to people with reading disabilities?”

I am often asked “who on earth would oppose a treaty to facilitate access to information and knowledge to people with reading disabilities?” Please read my selected quotes from the comments posted today on the Copyright office page here. But I would also like to highlight some really positive and supporting comments about the treaty. There are more of them than the negative ones but do they have the same weight?
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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

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Flurry of upcoming meetings at international organizations in Geneva (WHO, WIPO and WTO)

The final stretch of 2009 ushers in a host of meetings at Geneva based institutions including the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement, the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property, the WTO Ministerial, the WHO Expert Working Group and the Standing Committee on Copyright. To keep abreast of the hive of activity emanating from WIPO, WHO and WTO, here is a roadmap to keep track of the various meetings.

November 2, 2009
African-Arab Seminar on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions: Addressing the Needs of Affected Constituencies

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Speech of Mike Foster, UK Minister for International Development at launch of Industry Government Forum on Access to Medicines

On October 12, 2009, the “Industry Government Forum on Access to Medicines” (IGFAM) was launched. The UK Minister for International Development, MP Mike Foster made a a speech to launch this initiative which is reproduced below.

Presentations were also made by Pfizer (Ponni Subbiah), GSK (Abbas Hussain), Rajiv Venkayya (Gates Foundation), Prashant Yadav (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Suerie Moon (Research Fellow and Doctoral Candidate, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University).

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KEI, Richard Stallman, ORG, letter to European Commission opposing Oracle acquisition of MySQL assets from Sun

KEI, Richard Stallman, ORG, letter to European Commission opposing Oracle acquisition of MySQL assets from Sun The following is a letter that KEI, Richard Stallman and ORG have sent to the European Commission, asking the European Commission to prevent Oracle… Continue Reading

S. 2210, 110th Congress, Medical Innovation Prize Act of 2007

110th CONGRESS, 1st Session

S. 2210

To provide incentives for investment in research and development for new medicines, to enhance access to new medicines, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

October 19, 2007

Mr. SANDERS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions


A BILL

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White House shares the ACTA Internet text with 42 Washington insiders, under non disclosure agreements

On November 4-6, 2009, the next round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Negotiations (ACTA) will take place in Seoul, Korea. The following is another strange chapter in the secrecy surrounding this negotiation.

Background

Since ACTA was first announced, KEI has pressed the negotiating governments to provide more transparency, including recently, for example

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