Why do American media conglomerates hate people with disabilities? The MPAA and RIAA (the trade groups that represent music and movie industries), along with book publishers, are opposing a new copyright treaty that includes an international copyright exemption to reading material distributed in accessible formats to people with disabilities. In other words, this treaty would allow people with disabilities to share accessible reading material without paying the publisher. Most developed nations already have such copyright exemptions that make e-books available to people with disabilities at little or no cost. This treaty would allow the individuals share accessible books across borders.
The media conglomerates make the predictable argument that granting such a copyright exemption will promote book piracy. The book piracy boat sailed a long time ago and publishers have much bigger worries than the possibility that a posse of blind book pirates will start uploading Harry Potter novels to the web. Hopefully, disability advocates (with an assist from Google) will be able to get this treaty finalized and ensure that people with disabilities around the world have access to reading material.
Thanks to BoingBoing for the tip.
Wait- I’m confused. Is the treaty saying that if the creator of the content gets $10 for an ebook that they should get $10 for a braille book? If so, that makes total sense to me.