Intellectual Property
Absolutely fantastic and welcome news! At last, after years of lobbying and discussions at WIPO, a Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons, has been adopted by Member States (including my country, South Africa) at the WIPO Dipolomatic Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco. See: http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/26/miracle-in-marrakesh-historic-treaty-for-visually-impaired-agreed.
Congratulations to the SA National Council for the Blind and its Copyright Alliance for their hard work in this regard. I am proud to be part of your team.
What a wonderful day to celebrate access to knowledge (A2K) around the world. As a result, and at last, persons with sensory-disabilities will soon be able to enjoy their right to access information and freedom of expression, as well as exercise their 'fair use/fair dealing' rights in copyright - rights they have been deprived of for far too long! At last they will be able to access information in accessible formats and share information across borders. A great achievement for all those who worked so hard to make this happen. A great achievement too for Member States who finally acknowledged that persons with sensory disabilities need to be recognised as people with needs and aspirations like anyone else and that it is time to rid intellectual property laws of discriminatory measures against them. May all Member States sign and ratify this Treaty so that the benefits in the Treaty are adopted as soon as possibile into national copyright laws around the world.
So wonderful too, that this Treaty has been debated and agreed upon on African soil! I am so proud to be an African!! http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/26/miracle-in-marrakesh-historic-treaty-for-visually-impaired-agreed/