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Dec 7, 2009 letter from Ambassador Kirk to Senator Sanders and Brown on ACTA transparency, says nothing new

On December 7, 2009, Ambassador Ron Kirk faxed a two page letter to Senator Bernie Sanders. (Page 1, Page 2). The letter made no concessions, and broke no new ground, as USTR continues to stonewall its critics on the transparency issue.

Kirk was responding to this November 23, 2009 letter from Senators Sanders and Brown to Kirk.

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Transparency of FTAA negotiations, compared to ACTA

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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29 Reply comments in WIPO Treaty for Blind/Disabilities U.S. request for comment

http://www.copyright.gov/docs/sccr/comments/2009/reply-2/

Organization/Comment

1 Meredith Filak
2 Malini Aisola, Knowledge Ecology International, and Meredith Filak
3 Pablo Lecuona, Tiflolibro
4 Brad Huther, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
5 Dan Pescod, Royal National Institute of Blind People
6 Nirmita Narasimhan, Centre for Internet and Society
7 Margaret Chase, Radio Reading Service
8 Robert Martinengo, Center for Accessible Publishing
9 Steven M. Rothstein, Perkins School for the Blind
10 Harold Martin, WVTF Public Radio
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Ambassador Kirk: People would be “walking away from the table” if the ACTA text is made public

After attending the three day WTO Ministerial meeting in Geneva, I took the non-stop United Airlines Flight back to Washington, DC. On the airplane were a number of U.S. government officials including the head of USTR, Ambassador Ron Kirk. I had a chance to talk to Kirk about the secrecy of the ACTA agreement. He said the ACTA text would be made public, “when it is finished.” I told him it that was too late, and the public wanted the text out now, before it is too late to influence anything.

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In their own words: why they oppose the treaty to facilitate access and sharing of works for people with reading disabilities

Now that we know who are the people opposed to an international treaty to facilitate access and sharing of accessible formats of works for blind people and people with reading disabilities, let’s read what their arguments against the treaty are.

I was able to highlight 10 main arguments and you can check in their own words below if you do not believe me:

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WIPO CDIP approves certain components of Project on Intellectual Property and the Public Domain

The Fourth Session of WIPO’s Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is taking place from 16 November 2009 to 20 November 2009.

Among the projects under consideration this week is is the project on Intellectual Property and the Public Domain based on recommendations 16 and 20 of the Development Agenda.

Recommendation 16 states:

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“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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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.

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