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.
Today, May 15 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day—a day intended to get people talking, thinking, and learning about digital accessibility for people with disabilities. This is an opportunity to share what Benetech’s DIAGRAM Center is doing to ensure that digital content is accessible to all. The DIAGRAM Center is working at the frontier of accessible publishing and online content by making it easier, faster, and cheaper to create and use accessible digital images. One of the many emerging technologies we are researching is 3D printing for accessible educational materials.
For this installment of our Q & A with Staff series, we sat down with Anh Bui, Director of Product Strategy for the Benetech Global Literacy Program, and Director of the DIAGRAM Center. Q: You’re wearing two hats at Benetech—could you explain to our readers what your job on both Global Literacy product strategy and […]
From supporting human rights groups to advancing math accessibility, our staff is busy this month! Our VP of Engineering Gerardo Capiel spoke on a panel discussing accessibility standards at the EDUPUB2 Workshop on Digital Publishing for Education. Our Human Rights team will be heading at the end of the month to the Lesbians Who Tech Summit in San Francisco.
February has seen a flurry of activity by our team, as our staff has been busy presenting at and attending professional conferences and public events. In Part 1, read about our participation at the 2014 State of the Valley Conference and about our presentation on 3D printing at WebWise 2014.
