Legal Information regarding Works of Fiction or Literature Whenever a book is eligible under UK Copyright Act (1988), including most books of literature and many Travel Guides, we will make available Braille transcriptions under the UK Copyright Law exemptions. "The UK Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002 -- An Act to permit, WITHOUT INFRINGEMENT of copyright, the transfer of copyright works to formats accessible to visually impaired persons"—states in Section 31A regarding the making a single Copy for Personal Use’ (begin quote): "(1) If a visually impaired person has lawful possession or lawful use of a copy ("the master copy") of the whole or part of… (b) a published edition, which is not accessible to him because of the impairment, it is not an infringement of copyright in the work, or in the typographical arrangement of the published edition, for an accessible copy of the master copy to be made for his personal use… (4) An accessible copy made under this section must be accompanied by- (a) a statement that it is made under this section; and (b) a sufficient acknowledgement. (end quote) Nowhere in the official publication of the "Copyright Visually Impaired Persons Act (2002)" does it say the recipients of such accessible copies must be citizens of the UK…only that the book must be eligible under UK Copyright Law. A ‘lawful’ copy can be one obtained from or available at the local library that you are eligible to use according to the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). The U.S. (USA) Copyright Act Section 121 (Chafee Amendment) only applies to recipients who are U.S. (USA) citizens. We also note that recital 43 of the European Copyright Directive (EUCD) states: "It is in any case important for the Member States to adopt all necessary measures to facilitate access to works by persons suffering from a disability which constitutes an obstacle to the use of the works themselves, and to pay particular attention to accessible formats." (End of recital) We think that any publisher located within the EU – or in any other country for that matter – should follow this directive as to ALL NECESSARY MEASURES. We recently read the following: (p. 7) Our notion of humanity recognizes the fundamental worth of each human being and accords abiding respect to each person’s uniqueness ... It demands a conscious engagement with the diverse lifestyles, values, forms of expression...one that also acknowledges a right to personal development... This humane consideration of others is the wellspring of civic-mindedness. (p. 36) Goal 7. "Equality of participation and contribution" -- Free-market mechanisms provide individuals with a full range of self-development possibilities ... We want to develop these strengths to their full potential. At the same time, however, we must ensure that each individual is in a position to take advantage of them. Helping people help themselves while concurrently ensuring that social disparities do not become a drag on society as a whole is an essential characteristic of social market economy. And from where did these noble words come? From the document entitled "Encouraging Social Change: Sociopolitical Goals and Perspectives of the Bertelsmann Stiftung (Foundation)" the owner of 70% of the (non-voting) stock of Bertelsmann AG, the owner of Random House, which on its own website says "Random House, Inc. is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher". (Heading) Legal Information regarding 'Fair Use' or 'Fair Dealing': Some of these Braille BRF files are being made available to you under the 'Fair Use' or 'Fair Dealing' laws of your home country which has reciprocal copyrights agreements with the home country of the copyright owner. We at TravelBraille.Com are acting on your behalf to transcribe these files into Braille...and any BRF file will only be sent one- on-one to a registered individual via e-mail. It is <YOUR> rights on an individual basis that are being exercised -- not our rights. And our authority to assist you only applies to you. That is why we request that you not send these files to other blind persons. We can act legally on any one person's behalf but we cannot disseminate copyrighted material to a broad audience. Fair use or fair dealing provisions of most country's copyright laws allow for you to make a copy for your own use provided that the work is for research or personal study, and / or that the work is not available to you in an accessible, in this case, Braille format. A House Report to Congress by the Committee that drafted the 1976 US Copyright Act stated (begin quote): While the making of multiple copies...of a work for general circulation requires the permission of the copyright owner … the making of a single copy...by an individual as a free service for a blind person would properly be considered a fair use under Section 107. -- The House Report on the Copyright Act of 1976 (Report No. 94- 1476) 94th Congress, 2nd session, page 73. (end quote) From US Copyright Act Section 107 itself (begin quote): In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include — (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. (end quote). Note: No copyrighted material is or will be 'made available online' on this website as specified in Paragraph 512(b)(1)(A) of the USA Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Any Notification as specified in Paragraph 512(c)(3) to the contrary may be subject to provisions of Paragraph 512(f) of the same act. Any legal notice as to attribution of copyright owner and claims to fair use or fair dealing will be contained in the BRF Braille files themselves. All copyrighted material used with the permission of the copyright owner will also be so noted. (Heading) Legal Information regarding Public Domain: All public Domain materials are made available through Gutenberg.org -- these books are provided with excellent text editing. The Gutenberg.org website says: "Most Project Gutenberg e-texts are public domain. You can do anything you like with these -- you can re-post them on your site, print them, distribute them, convert them to other formats." To date, we have received requests to format Gutenberg.org BRF files into smaller texts that will more easily load in to Braille NoteTakers, etc., among other format and editing requests. |
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