didn't that recent treaty have a bit of bearing on this?
I'm not tight on the legal ramifications.
On Fri, 8 May 2015, David Goldfield wrote:
Hi, Christina.
Thanks so much. Btw, I don't necessarily disagree with what these folks
really want, which is a lack of digital rights management for NLS books.
They're not asking for this because they want to make illegal copies and
give them away to anyone who wants them. Rather, they want the capability to
copy and play NLS books on any device of their choosing. Their point is that
if you want to listen to a NLS audio book on your Mac computer, you should
be able to do this. If you want to listen to an NLS magazine on your $40.00
mp3 player that you bought at Walmart then you should be able to do that
without the need to spend $330 on a blindness-specific authorized player
such as a Victor Stream. That I agree with. Also, I don't know about other
DAISY players but the Plextalk Pocket does not even come with authorization
out of the box to play BARD titles. Unless this has changed, this means that
a Plextalk Pocket that you may have ordered from a blindness products vendor
will not play books downloaded via the BARD service. To play books on your
Plextalk Pocket from BARD, you must go to the BARD web site, choose the
option to authorize a player and select the appropriate player from the
list. Next, you must enter the serial number of your Plextalk Pocket which
you get to by going to one of the Plextalk menus and having the unit
repeatedly read off the serial number while you're writing it into the form.
Next, after this information has been submitted, you must wait for NLS to
verify this information, after which you will receive an email with the
Plextalk authorization key attached. You must then copy this file onto an SD
card, including the card which came with your device and turn on the
Plextalk, allowing the unit to run the file and add NLS authorization into
your unit. Yes, it only needs to be done once and after this is done you are
free to copy as many BARD titles to as many SD cards as you like but the
fact is that this is a huge process for Plextalk Pocket owners who either
don't own a computer or who don't feel they're savvy enough to perform these
tasks. The lack of DRM would eliminate this unnecessary drama. Having said
that, I predict that the only way NLS would remove DRM from its recorded
titles would be by an act of Congress, pun somewhat intended, as they're
trying to avoid copyright infringement and probably feel that the current
system does this. Contrast this with Bookshare, which offers more titles but
which has no such restrictions. Their titles are available as unprotected
DAISY files, mp3 files and Grade 2 files, no authorization required. Just
download a book into your fill in the blank player and you're ready to read.
Bookshare does, however, have very strict terms covering how their files can
be used and distributed and users found to be abusing the privilege will
likely have their accounts removed. Bookshare also verifies that all of
their users have a qualifying print disability. This is an example of how
you can follow the law by ensuring that all of your readers have the legal
print disability required to use the service without being loosy-goosy about
it.
I guess my point is that I don't really disagree with what these guys are
demanding, only with some of the arguments they use to support their views.
Feel free to visit my Web site
http://www.davidgoldfield.info
David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology Specialist
On 5/8/2015 3:34 PM, Christina Stolze wrote:
David,
I value your opinions and the fact that you aren?t shy. I am also
very opinionated and I also am not shy. Have a great day.
Christina
From: blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
David Goldfield
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2015 3:17 PM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: about accessible reading
Christina,
It was absolutely appropriate for you to post that piece. If it's
tech-related and especially if it relates to how we use technology
then copy, paste and post to your heart's content. Sharing information
and opinions is one of the reasons for this list. I admit that I'm
rather opinionated and I'm not shy about expressing my own views but
you're free to post any material like this, whether I agree with the
statements or whether I don't.
Feel free to visit my Web site
http://www.davidgoldfield.info
David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology Specialist
On 5/8/2015 2:43 PM, Christina Stolze wrote:
David,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions and
expertise on this matter. I only shared it because I
personally don?t have enough knowledge about it. I hope it
was OK to share. Thank you and have a nice day.
Christina
From: blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of David Goldfield
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2015 2:33 PM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: about accessible reading
In theory, I agree with the overall point raised in this post.
However, there are some things that I would take issue with.
It's true that NLS incorporates digital rights management into
their recorded books. I find it inconceivable that we are unable
to play their audio titles on a Windows or a Mac, even though I
admit that I personally wouldn't be interested in doing so even
if the capability existed. However, access to these books is not
as limited as the authors imply. I wonder when this post was
written because the post states that access to these books via a
smartphone is not possible, which is certainly not the case. The
BARD Mobile app allows us to listen to audio books and magazines
on iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The
post states that these books aren't available for digital
players, which is also not the case, as you can play BARD books
on Victor products including the Stream along with Plextalk,
Booksense and several others. Also, the Braille books and
magazines on the BARD Web site contain no digital rights
management, meaning that they can be read on any device, once
the Grade 2 file is translated into text.
The authors say that Librivox is the only other decent choice
for free and open books. This may be true for public domain
audio titles but it's not the only option for books which don't
use digital protection. Books from Bookshare use no DRM. Not
only can I play them on my NLS player but they can be played on
an iPhone, Windows computer, Mac and even on a Kindle if you
know how to convert the files. It may be true that I'm not
permitted to share Bookshare content with others but I am still
free to copy the books on whatever medium I choose and can read
them on practically any electronic device within reach.
Also, while public libraries may offer more titles than NLS,
their audio books still come with restrictions. While some audio
titles may come on a standard CD, I am technically not allowed
to make copies of it to keep, even though the capability exists.
Also, libraries do use special types of formats which I think do
have some digital rights management installed.
In short, while I'm not a fan of digital rights management I
just don't think these arguments really prove that the model of
distribution used by NLS is flawed.
Feel free to visit my Web site
http://www.davidgoldfield.info
David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology Specialist
On 5/8/2015 1:07 PM, Christina Stolze wrote:
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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?Life is either a daring adventure or nothing?.
Helen Keller
