Copyright

Hi WAI UA working group,

Ian asked that I comment on some copyright issues that have come up. I did
not see the original post, but I get the drift.

I am not a copyright lawyer, but I do understand the issues. Copyright law
does prevent the modification of a document. The intellectual property (IP)
right holder does have the right to ensure that their  creation is used in
the way it was intended. Their ideas should not be altered.

Persons with disabilities also have rights here. Access to information,
especially in the ""Information Age" is a human right. Without this human
right persons with print disabilities cannot participate in education,
employment, or society.

The human rights of persons with disabilities need not conflict with the
copyright of a IP holder. The intention of a accessible presentation should
not modify the document. It will probably present the information
differently, because of the nature of the way persons with disabilities
access information.  The structure and content of the document is rendered
in a way that is appropriate to the person reading the document. 

Libraries for the blind have dealt with this problem for a long, long time.
The DAISY Consortium has prepared a statement that was approved at our last
general meeting. The attached HTML file is the first statement in our
"Structuring Guidelines." The DAISY specifications and the Structure
Guidelines can be found at http://www.daisy.org. Follow the links to NEWS
and TECHNOLOGY for this.

I hope this helps.



Best
George

George Kerscher, Project Manager
PM to the DAISY Consortium
Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic
Email: kerscher@montana.com
Phone: 406/549-4687