Right now, in Geneva, at the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization, history is being made. For the first time in WIPO history, the body that creates the world's copyright treaties is attempting to write a copyright treaty dedicated to protecting the interests of copyright users, not just copyright owners.
At issue is a treaty to protect the rights of blind people and people with other disabilities that affect reading (people with dyslexia, people who are paralyzed or lack arms or hands for turning pages), introduced by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay. This should be a slam dunk: who wouldn't want a harmonized system of copyright exceptions that ensure that it's possible for disabled people to get access to the written word?
The USA, that's who. The Obama administration's negotiators have joined with a rogue's gallery of rich country trade representatives to oppose protection for blind people. Other nations and regions opposing the rights of blind people include Canada and the EU.
Update: Also opposing rights for disabled people: Australia, New Zealand, the Vatican and Norway.
Ann Steckel on 13 Jul 09The scenario: It's 2020 and the world has changed. Some say for the better, for others it is the worst. The internet, the technology that connects us, will be turned off in 60 days. The world leaders, controlled by BIG BUSINESS, have agreed that the internet is making the world worse, and is now too big and too powerful. It must be stopped. The resistance force, always on the move, known as the Wireless Underground will seek to rally others to form their own resistance groups and to eventually form a new www based on connecting rogue sites. Each group will have limited range of access but can extend through connecting with other groups. They say official orders have been given. The Internet is closing down, to be replaced by a single information service called the "Alternet". The underground predict that G8 world leaders will make an the announcement in Feburary 2021, but this could just ne a hoax ... but what if it's true? What will be your story?
