[bksvol-discuss] Re: A Better Way to Read Ebooks
- From: Monica Willyard <rhyami@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 14:43:18 -0500
Hi Susan. You've asked a good question. I'll share what I know, and
maybe someone else can fill in some things if I miss something.
Kindle books have a proprietary format and have DRM protecting them.
QRead can't open them because it is against American copyright law for
the developer to break the DRM to open the file. We are allowed by law
to do that individually for personal use if a book isn't accessible,
but doing that is a difficult process.
Books from Apple are different though. They are in Epub format. I
think they have some protection on them. I'm not sure because iBooks
is so accessible on the iPhone/iPad that I haven't tried opening them
in anything else. QRead just came out today, and I haven't
experimented with my books from Apple yet.
Kindle books are accessible if you use the Kindle for PC with the
accessibility plugin provided by Amazon. It's a clunky reader at best,
especially for reading nonfiction and textbooks. Still, we can use it,
and it does work. I'd love it if QRead could legally open Kindle
books. For now, that is not possible due to how Amazon puts DRM on
their books.
--
Monica Willyard
Visit my GoodReads book shelf at http://www.goodreads.com/plumlipstick
On 03/02/2012, Susan Lumpkin <slumpkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Monica,
>
> I'll probably give you your laugh for the day! Are Kindle or books from the
> Apple bookstore considered to be a proprietary format or are they E-pub
> books? Hope you're not laughing too much!
>
> Susan (smiling)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Monica Willyard
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 9:14 AM
> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] A Better Way to Read Ebooks
>
> Hi everyone. I've seen many questions from blind people on this list about
> how they can read different formats of ebooks accessibly and how they can
> get the most from Bookshare's own books. We've talked about how we're tired
> of running around trying to figure out how to read various types of ebooks,
> feeling like we want to pull our hair out. I found something new today, and
> I think it will help Bookshare's users and blind volunteers. Check out
> http://q-continuum.net/qread/ for a better way to do things. For the first
> time, we have a program that can read pdf, epub, Bookshare, text, and other
> types of books with one easy to use interface. The program is called QRead,
> and it's on sale for $20 till CSUN ends. There is a free demo version that
> loads 30 percent of your book so you can see how it works.
>
> One of the features I like best is the ability to keep your place in books
> when you shut down the program. I also like that it can unzip daisy books
> from Bookshare on the fly, letting you start reading immediately without
> thinking about where to unzip your book.
>
> I don't work for the developer or anything. I'm just really excited to have
> one interface, one reader for the PC instead of trying to sort out which
> program will open a particular type of book. It's worth trying if you want
> better options for handling ebooks.
>
> --
> Monica Willyard
> Visit my GoodReads book shelf at http://www.goodreads.com/plumlipstick
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