[bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & the American Association of Publishers
- From: "Pavi Mehta" <pavim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:13:19 -0700
Below is Jim Fruchterman's response to your question Soronel:
Thanks, Soronel, for this question. We have a very cordial relationship with
almost all of the publishing industry and with the AAP. We review our legal
agreements and major policy decisions with the AAP's general counsel, and
generally endeavor to keep the AAP in the loop on Bookshare. The AAP won't
come out and approve our policies, and I'm clear that's not their role. We have
changed policies in reaction to AAP concerns in the past, and consider them a
key partner. When we launched, the head of the AAP sent out an email to all of
their members saying that Bookshare was working closely with AAP. This
continues to this day.
The AAP acts as a liaison between us and their members, keeping them informed.
Individual publishers can and do hold a variety of opinions: Pearson is
generally at one end of that spectrum (and as the largest K-12 textbook
publisher, the most heavily regulated on accessibility). Most publishers are
very supportive of Bookshare, and have been voluntarily contributing their
books to Bookshare: most of the books on the NYT Best Seller lists come from
publishers that are helping with Bookshare. Each of these agreements is based
on our interpretation of Chafee. Most publishers see helping us as the
socially responsible thing to do, publishers like HarperCollins, Random House,
Hachette, Scholastic and many more.
Since Chafee hasn't been litigated (to my knowledge), a lot of what happens is
the result of these informal conversations. Our feeling has been that we're on
solid ground with the publishing industry as long as we take our Chafee
obligations seriously and restrict access to our books to people with bona fide
disabilities that interfere with reading print.
Jim Fruchterman
Warm regards,
Pavi
Pavi Mehta
Volunteer Coordinator, Bookshare
Benetech
480 S. California Ave., Suite 201
Palo Alto, CA 94306-1609 USA
Phone: +1 650 644-3459
pavim@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.benetech.org
The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity
A Nonprofit Organization
At 03:08 PM 7/27/2009, you wrote:
>In relation to my query earlier I did some googling and found a
>Benetech page saying that bookshare works with the AAP and that the
>AAP agrees with bookshare's legal interpretation of S121. However in
>the response I got from a Pearson employee I was told that the AAP
>disagrees with bookshare's legal position.
>
>Is Pearson misrepresenting their view as that of the AAP or has the
>AAP position changed?
>
>Not that it matters a great deal either way but I am somewhat curious.
> I tried locating an email address for JIM FRUCHTERMAN
> on the benetech website without success thinking it would be better
>to ask him directly.
>
>
>
>--
>Soronel Haetir
>soronel.haetir@xxxxxxxxx
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