[Wired] Obama Sides With Blind in Copyright-Treaty Debate

The Obama administration announced Tuesday it supports loosening international copyright protections to enable cross-border distribution of special-format reading materials for the blind, a move that puts it at odds with nearly all of U.S. industry. […]

The move comes as a broad spectrum of American enterprise, ranging from major software makers and book publishers to motion picture and music companies, have opposed the proposed international treaty that would make books more accessible to the blind. The chief complaint is that the treaty creates a bad precedent by loosening copyright restrictions, instead of tightening them as have every other international copyright treaty. […]

Toward that end, the United States is one of the lead negotiators of a proposed international accord that the European Union suggested was too friendly to business. A leaked EU document connected to the Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement suggested that the Obama administration’s “overriding objective” is to “facilitate the continued development of industry.” […]