[macvoiceover] Re: Probably OT and vent beware!!! What is RFB&D thinking?
- From: "Chris Hofstader" <cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:46:37 -0500
Hi,
I work nearly full time for Bookshare these days and do not in any way
condone cracking the NLS or any other authorization scheme designed for
electronic books made available to people with print disabilities. I do own
a Humanware Victor Reader Stream and enjoy using it quite a lot. I am quite
fortunate in that I can afford these gadgets and buy lots of stuff just to
check it out.
With that said, finding a way to use audible.com content (if not already
done) would be a huge benefit as they do not provide a manner to access
their library in compliance with the Chaffey amendment.
Finally, NLS cannot stop anyone from writing any software the programmers
wants to make. They can refuse to cooperate but coding is protected speech
under the first amendment so you can hack away to your heart's content using
any tools you have available to you.
To conclude, though, NLS is not the enemy. They are good guys on the good
side of this battle. The publishing industry which is trying to drop as
many boulders in the way of expanding the universe of books available to
people with print impairments are the ones we need to get passed. The
recent settlement between Google and a bunch of publishers does include a
clause that will make the entire googlebooks collection available to "people
with print disabilities" and this library should contain more than 30
million titles. I haven't heard anything regarding progress on this matter
since publication of the original settlement but from what I've been able to
divine from a few articles last month, it does appear as though the text for
people with vision impairment will be made available under the guidelines of
the Chaffey amendment which is much more flexible than some other specific
agreements made with specific publishers.
our community is too small to get into counter-productive sectarianism.
Each organization delivering content to people with print impairments is
really trying their best to do the right thing. Unfortunately, "the right
thing," hasn't been entirely hashed out in the courts and congress so we all
interpret Chaffey a little differently.
Yeah, I know, blah, blah, blah. Does that cdh ever shut his pie hole?
Happy Hacking,
cdh
Chris Hofstader
email: cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Blog: http://www.blindconfidential.blogspot.com
Skype: BlindChristian
-----Original Message-----
From: macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Travis Siegel
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 5:15 PM
To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: Probably OT and vent beware!!! What is RFB&D
thinking?
The other problem with nls is that they absolutely refuse to allow
folks to develop software players for their digital content. I asked
at the acb convention a couple years ago, and was told flatly that
there would be no allowance for software players, because they'd
already selected their vendors, and they weren't allowing any more.
Of course, all this does is make me mad enough to find one of their
silly players (when they're released to the general public, and break
their stupid proprietary format.
If I can't play the thing on my computer, and do it easily and
accessibly, then I simply won't use the service.
Of course, this ddoesn't bother them in the least, they just don't
care, but perhaps if they received hundreds or thousands of
complaints, perhaps they'd allow somebody to do something about it,
though I'd certainly not hold my breathh.
On Dec 9, 2008, at 12:39 PM, Jacob Schmude wrote:
> I admit, NLS does bother me for that exact same reason. Why should
> we need a special player? I've heard the argument that it's no
> different from doing something like the Amazon Kindle, but that
> argument falls flat on one simple premice: you're not forced to use
> the Kindle if you don't want to. We are forced to buy another
> player, and I guess something in me rebels at that idea. Maybe I'm
> just an oddball, in fact I know I'm an oddball :), but I can't help
> but think that I have a laptop, as well as an iPod that does
> everything I need or want. The only thing it doesn't do is play NLS
> books, and I guess NLS just isn't important enough to me for me to
> want yet another device, especially if it's almost double the cost
> of something I already have and would serve me no other purpose.
>
>
>
> On Dec 9, 2008, at 12:28, Cheryl Homiak wrote:
>
>> NLS doesn't bother me because they aren't making their downloads
>> accessible to only one OS. You have to have a special player,
>> ridiculous or not, no matter what OS you are using, and it's
>> possible to download your books and load them onto your player
>> using any of the Oses.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cheryl
>>
>> "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
>>
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