Leia abaixo post feito originalmente por Cory Doctorow no blog BoingBoing, um dos mais acessados do mundo.<\/p>\n
Cory \u00e9 um das pessoas que mais entende de novas tecnologias no mundo e \u00e9 grande defensor da liberdade de express\u00e3o. Ele tamb\u00e9m escreve fic\u00e7\u00e3o cient\u00edfica e foi no passado representante internacional da Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).<\/p>\n
Est\u00e1 ocorrendo nesta semana, de 25 a 29 de maio de 2009, aqui na Organiza\u00e7\u00e3o Mundial da Propriedade Intelectual (OMPI), \u00f3rg\u00e3o da ONU, a d\u00e9cima oitava sess\u00e3o do Comit\u00ea sobre Direitos Autorais e Direitos Conexos (SCCR, na sigla em ingl\u00eas), para tratar das limita\u00e7\u00f5es e exce\u00e7\u00f5es aos direitos autorais e de um tratado para promover acesso a obras protegidas por direitos autorais para cegos, deficientes visuais e pessoas com defici\u00eancias para leitura.<\/p>\n
Barack Obama parece n\u00e3o ter mudado sua pol\u00edtica na esfera da propriedade intelectual. Assim como v\u00e1rios pa\u00edses ricos, como Uni\u00e3o Europ\u00e9ia (UE), Austr\u00e1lia, Canad\u00e1, Noruega, Nova Zel\u00e2ndia e, inclusive, o Vaticano.<\/p>\n
\u00c9 um esc\u00e2ndalo n\u00e3o flexibilizar os direitos autorais para cegos e deficientes visuais, que n\u00e3o podem fazer modifica\u00e7\u00f5e em obras para fazerem com que aparelhos eletr\u00f4nicos possam ler livros, por exemplo, em voz alta.<\/p>\n
S\u00e3o aproximadamente 240 milh\u00f5es de deficientes visuais ou com defici\u00eancia para leitura (tal como disl\u00e9xicos etc.) no mundo inteiro, algo em torno de 4% da popula\u00e7\u00e3o mundial, segundo a World Blind Union. E o acesso ao conhecimento est\u00e1 sendo negado, de forma vergonhosa, por pa\u00edses ricos.<\/p>\n
Cory normalmente n\u00e3o pede para pessoas espalharem not\u00edcias de forma viral, mas neste caso de extrema urg\u00eancia e import\u00e2ncia ele abre uma exce\u00e7\u00e3o e pede para que todos blogem, twittem, escrevam e divulguem o absurdo que est\u00e1 ocorrendo aqui na OMPI. Diz Cory:<\/p>\n
Normalmente eu n\u00e3o pe\u00e7o aos leitores para fazerem coisas assim, mas por favor enviem esta mensagem para pessoas que voc\u00eas conhe\u00e7am nos EUA, Canad\u00e1 e Uni\u00e3o Europ\u00e9ia e pe\u00e7am que elas reproduzam, twittem, divulguem, especialmente para pessoas do governo e ativistas que trabalhem com direitos das pessoas com defici\u00eancias visuais ou de leitura.<\/p>\n
Leia abaixo mat\u00e9ria no BoingBoing:<\/p>\n
Fique a vontade para traduzir para o portugu\u00eas e para incluir seus coment\u00e1rios abaixo.<\/p>\n
USA, Canada and the EU attempt to kill treaty to protect blind people\u2019s access to written material<\/p>\n
Posted by Cory Doctorow, May 29, 2009<\/p>\n
Right now, in Geneva, at the UN\u2019s World Intellectual Property Organization, history is being made. For the first time in WIPO history, the body that creates the world\u2019s copyright treaties is attempting to write a copyright treaty dedicated to protecting the interests of copyright users, not just copyright owners.<\/p>\n
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). This should be a slam dunk: who wouldn\u2019t want a harmonized system of copyright exceptions that ensure that it\u2019s possible for disabled people to get access to the written word?<\/p>\n
The USA, that\u2019s who. The Obama administration\u2019s negotiators have joined with a rogue\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Update: Also opposing rights for disabled people: Australia, New Zealand, the Vatican and Norway.<\/p>\n
Activists at WIPO are desperate to get the word out. They\u2019re tweeting madly from the negotiation (technically called the 18th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights) publishing editorials on the Huffington Post, etc.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where you come in: this has to get wide exposure, to get cast as broadly as possible, so that it will find its way into the ears of the obscure power-brokers who control national trade-negotiators.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t often ask readers to do things like this, but please, forward this post to people you know in the US, Canada and the EU, and ask them to reblog, tweet, and spread the word, especially to government officials and activists who work on disabled rights. We know that WIPO negotiations can be overwhelmed by citizen activists \u2014 that\u2019s how we killed the Broadcast Treaty negotiation a few years back \u2014 and with your help, we can make history, and create a world where copyright law protects the public interest.<\/p>\n
I am attending a meeting in Geneva of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This evening the United States government, in combination with other high income countries in “Group B” is seeking to block an agreement to discuss a treaty for persons who are blind or have other reading disabilities.<\/p>\n
The proposal for a treaty is supported by a large number of civil society NGOs, the World Blind Union, the National Federation of the Blind in the US, the International DAISY Consortium, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), Bookshare.Org, and groups representing persons with reading disabilities all around the world.<\/p>\n
The main aim of the treaty is to allow the cross-border import and export of digital copies of books and other copyrighted works in formats that are accessible to persons who are blind, visually impaired, dyslexic or have other reading disabilities, using special devices that present text as refreshable braille, computer generated text to speech, or large type. These works, which are expensive to make, are typically created under national exceptions to copyright law that are specifically written to benefit persons with disabilities…<\/p>\n
The opposition from the United States and other high income countries is due to intense lobbying from a large group of publishers that oppose a “paradigm shift,” where treaties would protect consumer interests, rather than expand rights for copyright owners.<\/p>\n
The Obama Administration was lobbied heavily on this issue, including meetings with high level White House officials. Assurances coming into the negotiations this week that things were going in the right direction have turned out to be false, as the United States delegation has basically read from a script written by lobbyists for publishers, extolling the virtues of market based solutions, ignoring mountains of evidence of a “book famine” and the insane legal barriers to share works.<\/p>\n