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UK Copyright Laws May Allow Bypass For The Blind
Faye Gibbins writes: "I've just heard on the BBC Radio 4 that there is a bill passing through the English parliment that will allow the blind to bypass the copyright and copyprotection on books and ebooks. (More at this site.) It seems to have wide backing in the lower house (Commons).
I wonder what Adobe think of this?"
From the RNIB
It looks like the UK will be leading the way with this, although I'm surprised its not being pushed at a European level.
Finally, a good law...but there is hardly any info on the linked site...
That's so swell of them. They're such humanitarians, letting blind people read the books they've purchased how they want. But we people who can see, we don't ever need to see our books except on a computer screen or on the paper it was originally printed on, and it's for our own good that we're not allowed to do anything else. Because I never listen to books on tape in the car, no sir! And anyone who wants to run the book they purchased with their own money through a speech program is obviously a terrorist and must be given harsher punishment than those pesky violent criminals.
Dyolf Knip
In the US, you have fair use rights; it's the technology needed to exercise them that's prevented. Is there any protection against a similar thing happening in this case?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
This is the most asinine, communist idea I have ever heard. It's almost as bad as hate crimes legislation. Oh, boo-hoo, blind people can't see books so they need special legislation to allow them to do what anyone in the US can do already under the "fair-use" doctrine. This makes me proud that I live in a country in which RIGHTS ARE RETAINED, not granted. Although, sometimes I wonder if anyone in our government knows this.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
The US has similar laws -- see 17 USC sect. 121.
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