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: [log in to unmask] Website: www.bookshare.org Sara Winge
O'Reilly & Associates Telephone: (707) 827-7109 Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.oreilly.com -- Ann K. Parsons email: [log in to unmask] 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


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