Stevie Wonder to UN: Ease copyrights for the blind

[Kadie]

Stevie Wonder to UN: Ease copyrights for the blind
By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 19 mins ago



GENEVA – Stevie Wonder pressed global copyright overseers on Monday to help blind and visually impaired people access millions of science, history and other audiobooks, which they cannot read in electronic form.

The blind singer told the U.N.'s 184-nation World Intellectual Property Organization that more than 300 million people who "live in the dark" want to "read their way into light," and the current copyright system denies them an equal opportunity.

The current legal framework means that institutes for the blind in different countries may be required to make multiple audiobook versions of the same work, said Richard Owens, WIPO's director of copyright and electronic commerce.

Owens said this leads to higher costs that are passed on to the listeners. It also limits access to blind and partially blind people in poor countries, which cannot afford to make their own versions of everything from science textbooks to best-sellers, he said.

snip...
Wonder called for a compromise and teased the diplomats.

"Please work it out. Or I'll have to write a song about what you didn't do," said the 60-year-old singer known for such hits as "Superstition" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You."

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100920/ap_on_en_mu/un_people_stevie_wonder_9

[Laughing Mirror]

1. "Please work it out. Or I'll have to write a song about what you didn't do."

Stevie Wonder is wonderful to do this.

I have heard hardly anybody ever talk about helping the blind or the partially blind, particularly in poor countries, with the possible exception of Hugo Chávez.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

2. I suppose I should be proud of myself . . .

. . . that the first thought that came to my mind when I read the post title was that he was trying to make it easier for blind authors, musicians and artists to receive and enforce copyrights for their own works. And I couldn't figure out why that would even be necessary.