Hmmmm.... Well, I guess if they want to regulate reading a document out loud they can add screen readers to the list, because that's exactly what they do. I agree. Stupid stuff like that will get the DMCA reopened, or possibly over turned. Hypathetically I'd like to know what they would do if a blind Windows user sent them a nice letter stating that he used a screen reader and Adobe Acrobat 5 to read the document. Then, ask them if they were going to procicute because he read it out loud with his computer. ----- Original Message ----- From: Geoff Shang <gshang@xxxxxxxxx> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 7:49 PM Subject: Re: Problems with pdf files. > On Sat, 19 Jan 2002, Janina Sajka wrote: > > > Let's be clear about this. Whatever you read in any copyright statement is > > valid only if it falls within the law goveerning copyright. > > Definitely. I just think it's apauling that anyone thinks that they can > withhold such a basic right as reading aloud. > > > Silly statements such as the one below about reading aloud are exactly the > > kind of industry over-reaching that's going to get the DMCA reopened in > > Congress one of these days. > > Yeah, I've been reading about mutterings along these lines for the past few > weeks now. Bring it on! IMHO, the copyright situation, particularly in > the USA (which seems to be where it counts these days) is just crazy. Did > you know that if the 1998 amendment to the copyright act hadn't gone > through that Micky Mouse would have entered the public domain next year? > So it damned well should - they've had a long enough go at it. But no, > they need to tie it up for another 20 years or something. Grrrrrr! > > As an aside, an article in The Australian last Monday pointed out that > Australia's copyright laws are still life plus 50 years, instead of the > life plus 70 adopted in the USA. This means that, for example, all of > George Orwell's works are now in the public domain here in Australia, and > some are apparently on the web here. Of course, it's only legal for > Australians to access it. > > Geoff. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
