FYI – President signs
U.S. approval of treaty language for reaty to remove copyright barriers to
international access to books by people wit
From the White
House:
Landmark Treaty For
The Visually Impaired
R. David Edelman
& Stephanie Valencia
June 28, 2013
Today we mark another
important achievement for equal rights, this time for over a million Americans —
and over 340 million people worldwide — who are blind, visually impaired, or
with other print disabilities.
In April, 2012,
President Obama expressed the United States’ commitment to a treaty that
“ensures that copyright is not a barrier to equal access to information,
culture, and education for visually impaired persons and persons with print
disabilities.” This week in Morocco, we made good on that commitment, joining
with over 150 states in approving a landmark treaty that holds the potential to
open up a world of knowledge to a population that is too often shut off from
it.
According to the
World Blind Union, of the million or so books published in the world each year,
less than 5 percent are made available in formats accessible to the
visually-impaired. We call this “book famine.” No one has said it better than
Stevie Wonder, the world-famous singer-songwriter and prominent advocate for the
treaty: we must “end the information deprivation that continues to keep the
visually impaired in the dark” — and today, we are proud to mark a major
achievement in that effort.
The treaty adopted
today can help do just that by facilitating the development and distribution of
accessible-format print works within the framework of the international
copyright system. That is why organizations as diverse as the Motion Picture
Association of America and the National Federation of the Blind have already
come together in praise of this achievement. In adopting this Treaty, World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Members, including the United States,
demonstrated the continued contributions a modern and dynamic copyright system
plays in promoting creativity and enabling access to knowledge
worldwide.
In Stevie’s words,
this treaty can “open the doors to the world’s written treasures, moving toward
a future where there are no barriers to the expansion of knowledge and the
enjoyment of culture — even for the visually impaired.” The approval of its text
is the first step towards formally approving it at home and bringing it into
force worldwide. We are proud to have played a leading role in its negotiation,
and thank our experts throughout the Administration, and advocates from across
the United States, whose tireless efforts helped us reach this
milestone.
R. David Edelman is
Senior Advisor for Internet, Innovation, & Privacy and Stephanie Valencia is
Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the Office of Public
Engagement
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