Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 7, 2013

Bookshare International Library We’re always thinking about new ways in which Benetech could go deeper and help many more people. Bookshare , our flagship literacy program, is the world’s largest accessible library and currently serves more than 230,000 members with visual and learning disabilities.

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Literacy India Copyright Language 225

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 14, 2009

Last Friday I spent almost two and a half hours in a wide-ranging conversation with Maria Pallante of the Copyright Office (and two other folks whose full names I didn't write down). copyright exemption for serving the print disabled is commonly called the Chafee Amendment: Section 121 of copyright law. copyright law.

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Copyright Advocacy eBook Proposal 104

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

The world has finally moved beyond just electronically creating books that are then distributed as ordinary print books to actually delivering digital ebooks. In technical terms, this means that the next version of the DAISY format, version 4, will be the same as EPUB3, the main format used by commercial publishers of ebooks.

Accessibility 155

Accessibility Global eBook Copyright 155

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 30, 2013

Next month, I will be heading to TOC a couple of days early in order to participate in a W3C Workshop on eBooks and the Open Web Platform, where I will be talking about Social DRM (Digital Rights Management). You can read much more about this in Jim Fruchterman’s blog post, “Upholding the Social Bargain: Bookshare and Copyright Compliance.”

Accessibility 171

Accessibility Social eBook New York City 171

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 7, 2013

However, as the founder of the Bookshare online library, we have a great deal at stake in how the Treaty gets implemented. First, it makes creating a national domestic copyright exception an obligation of countries that ratify the Treaty. What’s in it; what does it mean; how does it affect Bookshare members?

Copyright 158

Copyright Law Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

The latest session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) just concluded last week. Since many of our organizations operate as libraries, we note that commercial availability of a book rarely impacts the availability of that book on the shelves of a library.

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Library eBook Authoring Alternative 193

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

The goal of the Treaty is to make a copyright exception for the blind and other people with disabilities that stop them from reading print, and to make import and export of accessible content legal. Bureaucratic barriers to utilizing a copyright exception, as proposed by some publishers, makes the cost even greater.

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Copyright Library India United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

I’m thrilled to share with you some of the recent amazing impact of Bookshare , a Benetech Global Literacy initiative and the largest accessible online library of copyrighted content for people with print disabilities. a11y accessibility Bookshare Braille DAISY ebooks Global Literacy print disabilities Reading'

Literacy 129

Literacy eBook Global Student 129

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 3, 2011

In my Fall 2011 President's Update , I mentioned some of our incredible recent achievements in this core program, including the amazing milestones of our Bookshare library. Exciting new tools, including a free, open source Android ebook reader and a free web-based ebook reader along with an accessible bookshelf in “the cloud.”

Impact 140

Impact Technology eBook Student 140

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

That’s the lobbying position of some companies in the intellectual property field when implementing the new Marrakesh Copyright Treaty. Libraries for people who are blind or dyslexic are the primary source of accessible books in audio, large print or braille. That would pretty much defeat the purpose of having a library.

Copyright 100

Copyright Library United States eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

OCTOBER 15, 2012

Benetech’s Bookshare library is living proof that real, transformative change happens through partnerships and by helping people unleash their talents and energies. The Bookshare breakthrough was to put our users in charge of the collection; we created a crowd-sourced library built by and for the people it serves. copyright law.

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Library Student eBook Volunteer 164

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 2, 2012

Bookshare, Benetech’s pioneering digital library for people with print disabilities, celebrated its 10th birthday last night with a terrific party that was attended by many of our long-time friends and supporters. copyright law. As a result, we quickly became the largest online library for people with print disabilities.

Celebrate 145

Celebrate Google Library eBook 145

TechSpot

JUNE 2, 2020

The Internet Archive back in March created the National Emergency Library, a controversial program that made more than 1.4 million eBooks available to borrowers without any wait times. The idea was to assist students through the remainder of the academic year and make it easier for ordinary citizens to access.

Library 57

Library National Internet Copyright 57

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

We’re operating at the forefront of copyright limitations and exceptions, both in the United States and globally. The recent Indian copyright amendment that creates an exception similar to Section 121 in the United States, which makes it possible for us to set up a Bookshare-style crowd-sourced library in India with local partner NGOs.

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United States Library Copyright License 134

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2014

Our Bookshare online library is continuing to multiply its impact. Canadians with disabilities will now have access to Bookshare through their public libraries and the Canadian National Institute of the Blind. What about yet another order of magnitude beyond that?

Literacy 158

Literacy eBook Accessibility United Kingdom 158

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 8, 2011

We’re against piracy, and have made commitments to authors and publishers to encourage compliance with copyright law. Stopping fund raising and subscription revenue for Bookshare, the largest online library for people who have print disabilities. Bookshare is an online library for people who can’t read standard print books.

Copyright 108

Copyright eBook Library Internet 108

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

To explain our approach, let’s look at Bookshare , our accessible online library for people with print disabilities. The Bookshare breakthrough put our users in charge of the collection with a crowd-sourced library built by—and for—the people it serves. copyright law.

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Social Develop Library Project 144

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 17, 2015

This historic international copyright exception treaty paves the way for a future in which people who cannot read regular printed materials can have equal access to books, regardless of where they live. There is still much to do, however, before the treaty takes full effect. It is politically popular.

Copyright 100

Copyright Library Education eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2015

Twelve years ago, the Fund made its first grant to Benetech, in support of the then newly launched Bookshare , our accessible online library for people with disabilities that get in the way of reading print, including visual impairments and dyslexia. government and states like Texas. In 2013, with the most recent (and fourth!)

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Fund India Donor eBook 100

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2010

Few people want to read a 388-page book online, and I've received several notes from people who checked out the online version and then decided to buy a physical or ebook copy. Do you know what the numbers on the copyright page mean? available for free at your library and on the web. And that shocked me.

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Participatory Museum Process License 33

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 9, 2018

The miracle of ebooks What if we had the ability to overcome these accessibility barriers, barriers that affect most of humanity, not just people with identified disabilities, wouldn’t we have the moral obligation to act? We can use the same ebook file to deliver the content ten different ways. We can do better!

Accessibility 135

Accessibility People eBook Copyright 135

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 24, 2018

What if we could scan once, proofread the resulting scan, and share that ebook with tens of thousands of eager readers? Gerry quickly did the legal research and came back to explain that my idea, which seemed like it should be illegal, was 100% permitted under an obscure provision of the copyright law!

Mentoring 167

Mentoring Copyright Law Ideas 167

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 5, 2016

The first was the ebook. Fundamentally, the Arkenstone Reader allowed blind people to create their own personal ebook as a text file that could be read in something like Microsoft Word. These formats now underpin the ebook industry of today. It makes a copyright exception like the U.S.

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Change eBook United States Conservancy 100

Tech Soup

FEBRUARY 14, 2014

This is a round-up of some of the free graphics tools that various folks have recommended to me including some sources for copyright free images. It also creates digital documents like eBooks, reports, PDFs, and webpages. " These are fine for noncommercial use by charities or libraries with attribution to the author.

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Images Software Free Adobe 56

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 13, 2011

Bookshare Hits 100,000 Members Boy reading at a computer with teacher in the background.Since the beginning of 2009, we’ve tripled the number of people with disabilities Bookshare is serving with our accessible library of ebooks. If we’re going to speak truth to power, then we need to make sure that we are speaking truth.

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Conservancy Student National Congo 140