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Re: No decision from the Appeals court

for

From: michael.brockington
Date: Sep 30, 2004 8:35AM


-----Original Message-----
From: khall51 [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: 30 September 2004 14:37
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] No decision from the Appeals court

> If we can prevent the nightmare that is copyright law in the U.S. ...

Just in the U.S. ?
Again I feel I must mention a couple of precedents:
One of the first laws enacted in Iraq after 'the end of the war' (lets not
get into that though!) was a new Copyright Act, which I believe is even
tougher than in the US.
A small news item from a few days ago: music copyright over here last for 50
years, not 95 like the US. This means that I can start selling recordings of
Elvis, Beatles etc. quite soon. Legally. Wonder if I can sell MP3's of them
over the web to Americans?

My point is to agree with you that at the very least, we need to ensure that
accessibility legislation is written VERY carefully.

Further info a little closer to topic:
In the UK there has been a Disability Discrimination Act for about as long as
I have been alive. I assume that this is largely the same as the US' ADA, as
it stipulates ramps etc must be available at shops/restaurants etc, and if
required, at places of work. (ie physical access to all semi-public
buildings, "within reason") (Many Public or semi-Public buildings are listed,
and therefore Lifts and Ramps are frequently refused planning permission, or
at least used as an excuse.)
Clearly the UK government doesn't think that they could apply this Act to web
sites, as there is also recent legislation which states that all Governmental
sites must reach WAI AA standard. This does not apply to commercial sites, or
hobby sites of course. Yet.

Mike


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