Bookshare & O'reilly books make an aggreement

[Ann Parsons]

Hi all,

Figured some of you might be interested in this announcement.  You do
have to sign up for bookshare, but it is an avenue to get books in
accessible format. 

Ann P.




Publisher O'Reilly Makes Books Accessible to People with Disabilities
Worldwide Under

Landmark Agreement with Bookshare.org

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 04, 2003 - Today Bookshare.org, an online library
of accessible

digital books for people with disabilities, announced an agreement with O'
Reilly

& Associates, a leading publisher of computer books, to make digital
versions of

O'Reilly books available worldwide to qualifying users with disabilities.

Bookshare.org (www.bookshare.org) is a subscription service that provides an
extensive

online library of accessible digital books to people with severe visual,
reading,

and mobility disabilities. The service, which was created by Benetech, the
leading

technology nonprofit in the Silicon Valley, operates under a copyright
exemption

in US law allowing the redistribution of copyrighted works in specialized
accessible

formats for people with qualifying disabilities.

Under the agreement, O'Reilly & Associates will transfer digital copies of
its books

to Bookshare.org, which will convert the books into accessible formats and
make them

available to qualifying subscribers in the US. In addition, O'Reilly has
granted

Benetech rights to provide the books in accessible formats to qualifying
users from

other countries, the initial step in a planned expansion into providing
accessible

digital books internationally.

"This is truly a landmark event in the struggle to make books accessible to
people

with disabilities," said Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman. "Tim O'Reilly's
visionary

contribution will make it easy for people with print-related disabilities
worldwide

to access his outstanding collection of technical books."

"For years, we've done our best to make our books available to disabled
customers

on request," said O'Reilly founder and CEO Tim O'Reilly. "After overcoming
the technical

hurdles, the greater challenge was keeping up with the requests. Benetech's
Bookshare.org

will give our efforts a real boost through their expert assistance on both
the technical

and administrative fronts. This partnership builds on Bookshare.org's
expertise in

providing accessible formats and the XML conversion tools O'Reilly developed
to support

our online Safari Bookshelf. I'm quite pleased that we'll be able to make O'
Reilly

books available worldwide through the Bookshare.org service."

Bookshare.org offers a collection more than 12,000 accessible digital books
to its

subscribers. The books are protected by a comprehensive digital rights
management

system, which was designed in collaboration with the Association of American
Publishers

and features extensive controls, including file encryption, watermarks,
fingerprinting

and a security watch program.

Information on Bookshare.org and Benetech

Bookshare.org is a project of Benetech, an innovative Silicon Valley
nonprofit that

develops technology projects to address pressing social issues in areas such
as disability,

human rights, literacy, education and the digital divide. Many technologies
have

compelling social applications that are not developed because such efforts
do not

meet investors' financial expectations. Benetech specifically pursues
endeavors with

a strong social, rather than financial, rate of return on investment,
bringing commercial

technology and private sector management techniques to bear in creating
innovative

solutions to difficult social challenges.

Information on O'Reilly

O'Reilly & Associates is the premier information source for leading-edge
computer

technologies. The company's books, conferences, and web sites bring to light
the

knowledge of technology innovators. O'Reilly books, known for the animals on
their

covers, occupy a treasured place on the shelves of the developers building
the next

generation of software. O'Reilly conferences and summits bring alpha geeks
and forward-thinking

business leaders together to shape the revolutionary ideas that spark new
industries.

>From the Internet to XML, open source, .NET, Java and web services, O'Reilly
puts

technologies on the map.

Media Contacts

Brendan Nyhan

The Benetech Initiative

Telephone: (202) 588-8269

Email:

brendan at benetech.org

Website:

www.bookshare.org

Sara Winge

O'Reilly & Associates

Telephone: (707) 827-7109

Email:

sara at oreilly.com

Website:

www.oreilly.com

-- 
			Ann K. Parsons  
email:  akp at eznet.net 			ICQ Number:  33006854
WEB SITE:  http://home.eznet.net/~akp
"All that is gold does not glitter.  Not all those who wander are lost."  JRRT