So much has been said on this topic that I need not argue any further. Many
thanks to all including Dr. Nisha, Dinesh and dear Mukesh for bringing up
various issues related to this topic. Rajesh, Subramani, Chetan and others
have advocated our rights extremely well.
I just need to clarify a few points:
I do not support piracy. I do not consider providing books in accessible
formats to visually impaired persons who would otherwise would have been
deprived of this knowledge an act of piracy.
My intention in this case was as always to provide the book to print
impaired persons and that is why I posted it on a website meant for visually
impaired persons and informed a visually impaired mailing list about its
availability. Aren’t all the libraries and organizations for the visually
impaired doing a similar job for decades?
I do take care and try not to give these books to non-disabled persons. I do
respect the right of authors, and understand that they have a right to the
income from the sale of their works. And this is why I have never shared all
those digital copies I have acquired from the publishers or libraries
directly as these books can be purchased/acquired by all visually impaired
persons from them.
The fact that less than 4% of the published knowledge is available in
accessible formats troubles me a lot. Access to information is a key to
education, vocation and overall growth. The present copyright laws and the
publishing industry mind-set is preventing us from our basic human rights.
My National Award tag urges me to take up this issue and do my little bit
and that is why I referred to "Right to Read" in my earlier mail. I am glad
that there is a greater awareness within the print impaired community since
they have to push for changes in the present system. I hope someday
publishers start providing accessible formats either voluntarily or due to
legal obligations and then I will not have to scan dozens and dozens of
books for my University students every week.
And by the way, availability of accessible format is not enough, it must
happen at the same time and at no extra cost. I am tired of asking students
to wait for few weeks to 3 months for an accessible copy of their book
whereas their peers get to read it on the first day. In such a situation, I
can't really demand competitiveness and efficiency from my students. As far
as asking for soft copies and permissions for conversion to accessible
formats from Publishers is concerned, few AI members are witness to the
indifferent treatment we often get as it also happened on 6th & 8th October
when we went to meet two Governmental content producers .
Survey quoted from:
http://www.worldblindunion.org/en/right-to-read.html
Regards,
Prashant Ranjan Verma
www.prashant.myehome.in
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Renuka Warrier" <eren...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:09 PM
To: <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>
Subject: Re: [AI] New Book: Shadows Across the Playing Field
Until this work has been done for a social cause ,not for any commercial
gain, I see no harm in scanning the books and sharing it with others.
Renuka.
----- Original Message -----
From: "govind reddy" <sgred...@gmail.com>
To: "accessindia" <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 8:13 PM
Subject: Re: [AI] New Book: Shadows Across the Playing Field
Dear Nisha Sing and others:
1. Scanning a book and distributing with in our own community is a
big crime to be debated upon, to be discussed for hours together
wasting our precious time and energy?
If it is such a big crime, many in the colleges (So called the sighted
persons), inspite of having many accessible books and library
fecilities, still photo copy the books, why is it so?
Did you dare to point them out this? I’m sure you wouldn’t have, even
if you have tried, I’m also sure that you might have failed.
Do you know how many invaluable desertations, research papers and
books published by the current publishers and authors, I left with out
reading and interpreting them?
Do you know the valuable books I was deprived of reading?
Do you know the insults I had confronted in pursuing my higher education?
Do you know how difficult it is to learn a forign language?
Do you know how bad the universities are at providing the fecilities
for a VI person???
The wold is not in Delhi and USA. It is there through out India.
2. If you are such an honest person, do you have the copies of all
softwares you use?
Do you have the legal copies of Windows, M S Office, JAWS?
3. If you are a real and complete blind, how did you read the books
with out recording, scanning, in short with out any assistance?
4. If Prashanth and others don’t scan the books and don’t distribute
them to any visually impaired in India or abroad, will you do it?
Will you provide the books in an accessible format at your own cost?
5. Do you know how many of the visually impaired can successfully
access the computer independently?
Do you know how many of the visually impaired persons of this list,
can access the computers of their own?
Infact, are you a visually impaired who knows the practical
difficulties of a VI person?
Don’t live in Utopia, lead a practical and real life.
Come in to the society, try to know the actual difficulties.
Don’t restrict yourself to a limited section.
I couldn’t express my wrath properly, yet I tried to do it at my best.
And seriously I don’t regret for all my comments in this mail.
--
"Don't call me a flower, I'll dry up; Don't call me a deer, I'll run
away; Don't call me a moon, I'll wane away; Call me a shadow, I'll be
with you always."
Mobile: 9959392651, 9030915271.
Email: sgred...@gmail.com
My blog:
http://govindhowsweet.blogspot.com
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