Blog

At Benetech’s Human Rights Program, we are focused on helping activists and journalists uphold their commitments to protect and do no harm to the communities with which they work. We are therefore excited to announce the release of version 4.5 of Martus—our free, open source, secure information collection and management software—which includes major updates and usability improvements. Martus 4.5 takes a big step forward towards extending the reach and benefit of open source, strong crypto to the growing communities interested in secure data collection.

Two days ago, on Tuesday, June 10, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York made a major ruling that emphasizes the legality of fair use for book digitization. In Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, a unanimous three-judge panel concluded that digitizing books in order to enhance research and provide access to individuals with print disabilities is lawful on the grounds of fair use (Section 107 of the U.S. copyright law). This is an immense victory for fair use as the basis of a balanced intellectual property system, and we, at Benetech, are delighted by it and by its tremendous positive implications for the public interest.

At Benetech, we believe that as accessible digital content and applications increasingly become more available, they must also be easily discoverable. That’s exactly what we set out to do through the Accessibility Metadata Project, one of our Benetech Labs projects. We have recently completed the project and I’m delighted to say that we accomplished all these goals and more!

I’m delighted to share that FJC—a New York-based foundation of donor advised funds—has recently made two philanthropic commitments that build unrestricted support for Benetech. The first is a $50,000 matching challenge-grant, the second a $350,000, five-year term endowment. This level of recognition from FJC is a great honor and we are deeply grateful for their helping us address our most significant philanthropic need.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home not only to technology innovation, but also to the growing trend of impact investing—an investment approach that seeks to create both financial and social returns. In a story that examines the region’s impact investing landscape, the Maximpact blog cites Benetech among some of the biggest players in the Bay Area.