US, EU want to delay copyright treaty to help blind people for 3-5 years

Jamie Love sez, "On April 15, 2011, the European Union participated in informal negotiations on the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty for the blind. The meeting was held at the US Embassy in Geneva. The EU proposed a 3 to 5 year delay in even considering a treaty. The US position is reportedly quite similar to the EU. The URL links to the text of the EU proposal, and provides additional context."

The combination of the soft recommendation and the monitoring and delay in action advocated by the European Commission and the USPTO is widely seen as a face saving way for the Obama Administration and the European Commission to kill the treaty, or at least to delay it so long its proponents can no longer maintain their advocacy efforts.

At this point, advocates of the treaty will be looking for help in changing the positions of the European Commission and the US government -- the two groups now blocking action on the treaty.

* Within the US government, the USPTO head David Kappos and the White House have dug in against the treaty.
* In Europe, the European Parliament has held two large public meetings on the treaty, sent several letters and questions to the Commission, and plans a vote on the treaty proposal.
* The US Congress has yet to show any support for the treaty.

15 April European Union proposal: 3 to 5 year delay in negotiations on a copyright treaty for blind persons

• [Anonymous]

  Definitely read ‘to help blind people’ as ‘to assist in removing the sight of people’ and then ‘to hinder peoples’ understanding thereof’.

  Didn’t even occur to me that ‘blind’ was meant as an adjective & not a verb.

• [Robert]

  All I get from the link is “Access Denied”. Which, I guess, could be the additional context, a-hur-hur?

• [Anonymous]

  They blinding copyright thieves in Europe now?

• [turn_self_off]

  Kappos? Why did i on first pass read that as capo?

• [jem40000]

  I am the same jem40000 as in the (currently) only one comment to the KEIonline.org URL linked above. The WBU and Brazil Group tabled their Treaty proposal May 2009 and now maybe a 3-5 year non-binding agreement evaluation period is in store.

  When will these people start to put the Publishing Industry and those cooperating governments on the offensive? While not achieving 100% of the proposed Treaty objectives, there are initiatives that might be accomplished under the existing laws, of the USA, UK, Japan, and PR China. The Publishers would then have to initiate legal action to counter as to just why those efforts are not legal under existing law…

  The Publishers if not the governments themselves do not seem to spring into action just because some NGO quotes the “UN Convention On The Rights of Persons with Disabilities” no matter who signed what … When is someone going to say: “This is what we intend to do to start to put an end of The Book Famine; and if you don’t like it, you can sue.”

• [millrick]

  this treaty in not just for the blind; it’s for all of us who have “print disabilities”.

  –
  the US and the EU suck, btw