Dear Friends, the Daisy Forum of India, CIS and Inclusive Planet are initiating a nationwide Right to Read (R2R) campaign in India. The campaign will start in Chennai at Loyala college on 26th September and will cover the four metros over October. This campaign has been officially recognised by the WBU as a part of the global R2R campaign. We are writing to all organisations to come and lend their name and support to this campaign. We require you all to take part and spread the word. We believe that the amendments proposed a couple of years ago to the Copyright Act may again be under discussion in the ministry and so it may be a good time to put our requirements forward. Further, the WBU Treaty for the Blind is also coming up for discussion again at the next WIPO meeting to be held in December. It has currently got support of only three Latin American countries- considering that we house almost the largest percentage of blind and other disabled persons, it would be most beneficial for us if the Treaty comes through and we have been urging the Indian Government to support the Treaty as well. The Treaty seeks to harmonise exceptions and limitations to Copyright across all countries so that there can be an unimpeded exchange of books in accessible formats across borders. I suggest that all of you read the Treaty to get a better understanding of the issue involved. The Treaty also says that accessible books should be at prices which can be reasonably afforded by persons with print impairments, given their capacity of earning, which may be at the same price, or even lesser than the market price. Anyway, the long and short of it is that this treaty is good for us and the country and we want it to come through- so hence this awareness campaign. We plan to have half a day events where we will have open discussions and debates on this issue, get some famous persons to endorse this campaign, raise media interest and publicity and get public support. I'll send more details about this as and when they are finalised. I require help in: 1. getting all of you in the cities where this is happening to come and participate in large numbers 2. Suggest any famous personalities whom you may have access to for endorsing this campaign 3. help with organising this in different locations in different cities- if your colleges and universities will give us space- that is the best place to have these 4. Give your ideas for this campaign. Please write to me personally at nirm...@cis-india.org, or call me at my office number 080 40926283 after friday. I am travelling at the moment. Looking forward to your response, support and a great campaign together. Cheers, Nirmita PS We have registered righttoread.in as the campaign website- it should hopefully be up by the end of the week. Will of course keep you informed.
Nirmita Narasimhan (Programme Manager) Centre for Internet and Society No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers 14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore - 560 052 P: +91 80 4092 6283 F: 080 41148130 To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
