>The treaty allows for copyright exceptions to facilitate the creation of accessible versions of books and other copyrighted works for visually impaired persons. It sets a norm for countries ratifying the treaty to have a domestic copyright exception covering these activities and allowing for the import and export of such materials.
It's been in force since 2016, the US joined over five years. I can't comment on the overall success, but seems like a rare gem, being a copyright law/treaty, international or otherwise, that is unabashedly good!
heresie-dabord 5 days ago [-]
"Just a moment, Pooh Bear!" cried Owl. "You can't just rush ahead without IP lawyers and make things that are free of DRM!"
"Oh, bother!" replied Pooh.
selimthegrim 5 days ago [-]
Hence the internet archive keeping the copyrighted scans up for disabled screen readers.
thih9 5 days ago [-]
Could someone elaborate or give an example? What does the treaty mean in practice, i.e. what exactly does it change?
Amorymeltzer 5 days ago [-]
Honestly, everything I've read feel a bit like regurgitating the same concepts and phrases. There's a bit more from TFA (TFToot?):
>With work being done to implement the Marrakesh Treaty, national "authorized entities" are now able to share accessible versions of in-copyright works with each other internationally, but we don't have to wait for that in the case of works in the Public Domain.
But the WIPO has some clearer stuff:
>The Marrakesh Treaty addresses the “book famine” by requiring its contracting parties to adopt national law provisions that permit the reproduction, distribution and making available of published works in accessible formats – such as Braille - through limitations and exceptions to the rights of copyright rightholders.
>It also provides for the exchange of these accessible format works across borders by organizations that serve the people who are blind, visually impaired, and print disabled. It will harmonize limitations and exceptions so that these organizations can operate across borders.
>The Marrakesh Treaty includes exceptions and limitations to national copyright law that will enable “authorised entities,” such as blind persons’ organisations and libraries, to more easily reproduce works into accessible formats for non-profit distribution. It also permits authorised entities to share accessible books and other printed materials across borders with other authorised entities. This allows accessible libraries to share their materials with other organisations, which is essential for many developing countries where organisations that serve the blind are often woefully under-resourced.
WillAdams 5 days ago [-]
This is an aspect of something which I wish would be more acknowledged and investigated:
>How can the electronic representation of books be made more rich and featureful?
Great work! I did a production of Beatrix Potter’s stories with full alt text a while back for Standard Ebooks:[1] it’s a labour of love, but worth it.
But broadly, it’s a case of exposing the information a reader would be interested in, in a way that’s aligned with both the context and style. So if you look in that commit you’ll see for example a couple of alt texts:
Thomasina Tittlemouse sniffs at a jam pot on which a black fly is sitting. Behind her lie a couple of sleeping bunnies on the grass.
Benjamin Bunnie wakes up and pulls the paper bag up to look out at Thomasina Tittlemouse, who is now standing on the jam pot.
The two images are in sequence and illustrate a short scene, so the alt text reflects the reader’s expected understanding at that point.
wglass 5 days ago [-]
Very nice.
I note that in some ways the pictures really contribute to the story. For example, see the story on Eeyore's tail missing. The clue is that the picture shows the tail hanging as a cord to ring the doorbell. The alt text conveys this nicely by saying:
In this drawing, Pooh is back outside Owl's front door, with Owl standing in the doorway. Pooh is looking at the bell-rope, which ends in a tuft of hair.
I'm not sure if this could truly be automated, as the description of the picture needs to fit the context of the story.
divbzero 5 days ago [-]
This is very nice.
I have been using the version available in Apple Books:
The Edge team also briefly had a standalone Windows 8/10 app called "Reader" that supported EPUB, PDF, and a couple other similar formats without the rest of the browser UI, but was just purely an embed of Edge (Spartan).
notpushkin 5 days ago [-]
Yeah, I think EPUB was always basically a ZIP archive of a bunch of XHTMLs with some metadata.
throw4847285 4 days ago [-]
Those E. H. Shepard illustrations are truly spectacular. They remind me a lot of the original Peggy Fortnum Paddington art. That kind of sketchy black and white art can't sustain a big multimedia franchise, but I find it so much more evocative.
Rendered at 14:57:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) with Wasmer Edge.
>The treaty allows for copyright exceptions to facilitate the creation of accessible versions of books and other copyrighted works for visually impaired persons. It sets a norm for countries ratifying the treaty to have a domestic copyright exception covering these activities and allowing for the import and export of such materials.
It's been in force since 2016, the US joined over five years. I can't comment on the overall success, but seems like a rare gem, being a copyright law/treaty, international or otherwise, that is unabashedly good!
"Oh, bother!" replied Pooh.
>With work being done to implement the Marrakesh Treaty, national "authorized entities" are now able to share accessible versions of in-copyright works with each other internationally, but we don't have to wait for that in the case of works in the Public Domain.
But the WIPO has some clearer stuff:
>The Marrakesh Treaty addresses the “book famine” by requiring its contracting parties to adopt national law provisions that permit the reproduction, distribution and making available of published works in accessible formats – such as Braille - through limitations and exceptions to the rights of copyright rightholders.
>It also provides for the exchange of these accessible format works across borders by organizations that serve the people who are blind, visually impaired, and print disabled. It will harmonize limitations and exceptions so that these organizations can operate across borders.
Via <https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2016/article_0007...>. See also a handy PDF they put out(<https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_marrakesh_ove...>), or a note from IAPB (<https://www.iapb.org/news/ending-the-book-famine-the-marrake...>):
>The Marrakesh Treaty includes exceptions and limitations to national copyright law that will enable “authorised entities,” such as blind persons’ organisations and libraries, to more easily reproduce works into accessible formats for non-profit distribution. It also permits authorised entities to share accessible books and other printed materials across borders with other authorised entities. This allows accessible libraries to share their materials with other organisations, which is essential for many developing countries where organisations that serve the blind are often woefully under-resourced.
>How can the electronic representation of books be made more rich and featureful?
Some notable examples:
- https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm...
- https://www.motionmountain.net/
- The Elements by Theodore Gray https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...
- the "Living Books" series: https://wanderfulstorybooks.com/
Unfortunately vanished (anyone have an archive? was the wonderful _Bembo's Zoo_ https://www.devicq.com/bembo-zoo/ and https://engagetheirminds.com/2012/04/05/bembos-zoo/
I'd be very glad of other examples.
[1] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/beatrix-potter/short-ficti...
But broadly, it’s a case of exposing the information a reader would be interested in, in a way that’s aligned with both the context and style. So if you look in that commit you’ll see for example a couple of alt texts:
Thomasina Tittlemouse sniffs at a jam pot on which a black fly is sitting. Behind her lie a couple of sleeping bunnies on the grass.
Benjamin Bunnie wakes up and pulls the paper bag up to look out at Thomasina Tittlemouse, who is now standing on the jam pot.
The two images are in sequence and illustrate a short scene, so the alt text reflects the reader’s expected understanding at that point.
I note that in some ways the pictures really contribute to the story. For example, see the story on Eeyore's tail missing. The clue is that the picture shows the tail hanging as a cord to ring the doorbell. The alt text conveys this nicely by saying:
In this drawing, Pooh is back outside Owl's front door, with Owl standing in the doorway. Pooh is looking at the bell-rope, which ends in a tuft of hair.
I'm not sure if this could truly be automated, as the description of the picture needs to fit the context of the story.
I have been using the version available in Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/winnie-the-pooh/id6444759294
But the Apple Books version does not include the original illustrations, let alone accessible alt text.
Seems like it would be fairly simple to have web browsers support EPUB3.
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-edge-will-no-longer... (link found via Wikipedia article on "Microsoft Edge Legacy")