DRM: Disabling the disabled
This is a guest post by Storm Dragon and Kyle (co-writer), two blind
anti-DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) activists. It focuses on the
problems facing blind readers in the US, but much of it is applicable to
other countries as well.
DRM affects almost everyone on a daily basis, but in the blind community, it
is a problem of epic proportions. Usually when people want something to
read, they go to a library, pick up a book and check it out. Blind people in
the US can use the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped in almost the same way -- except for one major difference:
coming from the NLSBPH, books are usually audiobooks stored in a specialized
format encumbered with DRM.
The DRM restricts the books so that they can only play on specialized
hardware: a rather large and cumbersome device provided by the library, or
other specialized players that are extremely overpriced, starting at around
$350 to $400 USD. If you want to listen to the book on your computer, your
digital audio player or your Android smartphone, too bad; even though the
stated intent of the DRM is to prevent non-blind people from using the
NSLBPH's books, it actually prevents any attempt by blind people to use them
on unsanctioned devices. A notable exception is Apple products, which allow
sharing between devices, but only at the unacceptable cost of using
particularly restrictive proprietary operating systems.
Attempting to read an audiobook from the NLSBPH in the US is comparable to
going to the library and sitting down with a good book, only to find out
that reading it requires a licensed pair of glasses produced by about two to
three vendors, available at checkout or purchased at a premium from
authorized dealers.
DRM not only affects the accessibility of material to people with visual
impairment, but also places an undue burden on the tax payer, whose money
the government uses to design the NSLBPH's needless DRM constraints. This
tax money could be much better spent providing off-the-shelf players with
free software installed on them, which would be capable of playing
audiobooks in more compact formats, such as the Opus audio standard. Such
free players could even be adapted to read a new generation of time-indexed
markup, which would allow skipping backward and forward through a book by
multiple levels of divisions like sentences and chapters. This level of
control over the reading experience, widely available to sighted people, is
still mostly out of reach for the blind.
As a blind reader, I have had my own moral struggle with the problem of
digital restrictions on the books I read. At this point, my only choices are
to read books from LibriVox, which has a large selection, but has very
little new literature, or to find more questionable ways of obtaining books
that do not suffer from restrictions that keep me from reading them. Out of
these choices, LibriVox is definitely the better option, even though it
limits my selection of books to those that are in the public domain, or
otherwise have no copyright restrictions of any kind. Although no copyright
restrictions would be the ideal state of things for me, the fact remains
that there are still very few new entries into the public domain, and is not
likely to change any time soon. So any time someone tells me that they read
a really good book, I end up having to tell them that I am unable to read
it, because although I have access to the file, it limits my ability to play
it on the device I want to use, undercutting my freedom to read it.
Because digital restrictions are especially hard on people with
disabilities, I would urge everyone in the US to contact the National
Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and their senators and
representatives, to make them aware of the seriousness of the problem.
The US library is not the only one that suffers from these problems. I
encourage anyone in any other country to find out what restrictions are on
books that local blind and visually impaired people read. If they have the
same digital restrictions, attempt to have laws changed in your country as
well, "that all may read," as the US library so eloquently, but currently
falsely, states it.
In order to contact us or discuss this article, follow
@storm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and @kyle@xxxxxxxxxx from your favorite GNU
social site. The authors also have Web sites at https://stormdragon.tk and
http://kyle.tk/.
CC0
To the extent possible under law, Storm Dragon and Kyle has waived all
copyright and related or neighboring rights to DRM: Disabling the disabled.
This work is published from: United States.
Read this post online:
https://www.defectivebydesign.org/two-days-to-day-against-drm.
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