[bksvol-discuss] Pirate lists and Bookshare.org

  • From: <Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 03:04:43 -0800

I had an interesting experience this last weekend while heading to
Tunisia to speak on building a global library for people with print
disabilities (will post a link to my talk on my blog shortly).  I had
heard that there was a list that posts ebooks for blind people, and I
signed up for it.  I was quickly kicked off, but not before I found out
that people were sharing Bookshare.org books freely through this list.
 
Now, I was aware long before Bookshare.org was created that
print-disabled people were sharing books that they had scanned.  I don't
have a problem with it, whatever its legal status is.  But, when someone
shares a Bookshare.org book on such a list, that's a problem.  Our deal
with publishers is that we take copyright law seriously, and they give
us a fair amount of freedom to pursue our mission.  Our digital rights
management strategy is designed to give our users tremendous flexibility
to use the books for each person's needs.  We call it a "weak locks,
strong social pressure" model.  But, it means that we have to suspend
folks who we find out have been violating our agreement with them to not
share Bookshare.org books.
 
Not all publishers like what we do.  One person at a leading publisher
has been torpedoing the national conversation around accessible books by
claiming that we and RFB&D are dishonest.  This has been only partially
successful, because we have a reputation for taking our obligations
seriously.  I used to be able to claim I was not aware of Bookshare.org
books being shared illegally.  No longer.  And, we are obligated to take
action to police this, efforts I'd rather be spending on improving
Bookshare.org and expanding our collection.
 
We have been working for over a year to get access to the giant book
scanning projects being operated by Amazon and Google.  Getting our
hands on these books depends on our ability to represent that we are not
a conduit for these books to be leaked out onto the Internet.  
 
My goal is that people with disabilities all over the world have access
to books that is at least as good as that for people without
disabilities.  I want your help to reach that goal.  The most important
help we need from you is to respect your agreements with Bookshare.org.
Don't pass our books along to anyone else.  And, please don't contribute
books to Bookshare.org from a source other than your own efforts.  These
parallel efforts will probably go on, especially for people in countries
that don't have laws that provide legal options for access.  But, don't
pull Bookshare.org into this.  We will be significantly hampered in our
efforts to build access for hundreds of thousands of people with
disabilities if we lose our reputation for respecting our social bargain
with authors and publishers. 
 
Jim Fruchterman
President and CEO
Benetech
 
480 California Avenue, Suite 201
Palo Alto, California 94306 USA
+1 650 475-5440 extension 106
Fax: +1 650 475-1066
 
jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.benetech.org <http://www.benetech.org/> 
 
The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity
Benetech is a nonprofit organization
 

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