Please pardon my tardy response, I'm just now catching up on mail after several weeks on the road ... We do not take the position that the ruling we obtained solves all problems. It doesn't. Indeed, there's a long way to go. However, it does move the discussion forward by clearly reaffirming the core principle that blind people have the right to read. So, we regard this ruling rather as a wedge. Simon Waters writes: > From: Simon Waters <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Janina Sajka wrote: > > http://63.240.118.132/info_document_view.asp?DocumentID=1979 > > > > > > Librarian of Congress ruling is victory for people who are blind or > > visually impaired > > > > American Foundation for the Blind celebrates improved access to > > eBooks > > > > November 4, 2003 (Washington)--The Librarian of Congress issued a > > ruling last week supporting the right of people who are blind or > > visually impaired to gain full access to electronic books (eBooks). > > The ruling provides an exemption to the 1998 Digital Millennium > > Copyright Act DMCA), making it legal to circumvent any encrypted or > > protected features that render the text inaccessible for the > > specialized computer technologies used by people who are blind or > > visually impaired to read electronic text. > > How will this work in practice? > > In the UK it is now illegal to own and distribute such technology, if no > one can make or sell/distribute it, thenone group are free to > own/use/buy it for specific purposes is irrelevant, unless that group > suddenly becomes the experts in the circumvention technologies. > > Or does this place an obligation on the publisher to provide an > unprotected copy of the work? > > Excuse my cynicism, but I did my bit lobbying against this legislation, > but it obviously had very powerful backers. > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org > > iD8DBQE/uBabGFXfHI9FVgYRAmatAKCvjh+qnwtJoo+i1q5Gibh2yeH5lwCdGgsP > qTJpI3w8szwdrKB5QkQn5QA= > =qoOi > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list -- Janina Sajka Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx Phone: (202) 408-8175 Director, Technology Research and Development American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) http://www.afb.org Chair, Accessibility Work Group Free Standards Group http://accessibility.freestandards.org _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list