Stevie Wonder to UN: Ease copyrights for the blind

[September 20, 2010]  GENEVA (AP) -- Stevie Wonder wants global copyright overseers to help blind and visually impaired people access billions of science, history and other books they cannot read.

The blind musician told the U.N.'s 184-nation World Intellectual Property Organization that more than 300 million people who "live in the dark" want to "read their way into light."

But he said they are being denied equal opportunity.

The 60-year-old pressed for a deal to facilitate trade in copyrighted books so that they can be translated into readable formats for people with disabilities.

He noted Monday that there were various proposals.

Wonder called for a compromise and teased the diplomats: "Please work it out. Or I'll have to write a song about what you didn't do."

[Associated Press]

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