[bksvol-discuss] Re: User cannot download NIMAC sourced book
- From: "Donna Goodin" <goodind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:47:27 -0500
Hi Darrell,
I agree with you about Jim being an authority and Bookshare "fighting the
good fight", so to speak. However, I'm also very cynnical about publishers.
My husband is the director of the office for Services for Students with
Disabilities at the University of Michigan, and has done a lot of work with
text accessibility for college students. He was heavily involved in the
passage of what is known here as the Barbara Bill, a Michigan law requiring
publishers to provide etext to college students. He's also served on a
number of other panels and groups that have explored and worked with these
issues. More often than not, the publishers are rather intractible, and
when they do allow access, they control it within an inch of its life.
Though in general, i agree with you about the power of being up-beat and
positive, it takes more than that to get these guys to loosen the reigns.
In this climate of peer-to-peer data sharing, paranoia around controling
access to copyrighted material, be it music or text, is rampant.
My own position is also frustrating. I teach Spanish at the college
level. While many publishers now provide etext to college students, those
same publishers see absolutely no reason to provide access to those of us
who teach. I was actually working with a publisher last September around
getting access to a text book. I was fortunate because one of the book's
co-authors also teaches in my department, and contacted the publisher
requesting that they provide me access to the book. They actually had the
teacher's edition--which they usually don't--and gave me access to it. But
they also said that after I had used the book they were going to destroy the
teacher's edition, because the law only covers student access. *sigh*
We've got a long way to go yet, and I fear that the only way the publishers
will go there is kicking and screaming. I think the passage of a federal
law would be the best way to address many of these issues. If I find out
more about the law my husband mentioned this morning, I'll share it with the
list.
Best,
Donna
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-
> bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Darrell Shandrow
> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 2:10 PM
> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: User cannot download NIMAC sourced book
>
> Hi Donna and all,
>
> I would certainly trust Jim as being an authority on this entire
> process,
> and I would also trust that he and others did everything possible to
> make it
> happen. The recipient of the material must both have a print
> disability and
> be a K-12 child. Right now, I would say that a blind parent should
> focus
> their advocacy efforts on their school system. If it desired, I'm sure
> the
> school could purchase a copy of the book and get special written
> permission
> from the publisher for it to be released to the blind parent by NIMAC,
> or
> the publisher could just send the file on their own. Ultimately, I
> have
> found through my advocacy that if I speak and write with enough people
> and,
> ultimately, talk about something often and loudly enough to as many
> relevant
> folks as possible, I tend to get positive action in many situations.
>
> Also, now that NIMAC exists, there's an infrastructure in place for
> delivering this material. I'm wondering if state legislation could
> release
> it to blind parents? If the education officials in a particular state
> are
> only allowed to purchase materials from publishers who would allow
> release
> of accessible books to both children and parents with print
> disabilities,
> then I'd imagine publishers would want to comply with that state's law
> in
> order to continue doing business. Keep in mind that this could be done
> while taking little or no funding from a state's budget, after all,
> we're
> talking about a state's not spending money rather than spending. It
> shouldn't hurt education in the state as most publishers would
> immediately
> want to jump aboard as soon as the law were signed.
>
> I have a blind friend with two teenage sons. His inability to acquire
> most
> of the books in an accessible format is serving to diminish his ability
> to
> assist his children with their homework, etc. IMHO, there's absolutely
> no
> excuse for that state of affairs.
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donna Goodin" <goodind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 11:57 AM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: User cannot download NIMAC sourced book
>
>
> I'll see what I can find out. My husband pays a lot of attention to
> this,
> so I'm sure he'll eventually read the proposed law.
> Donna
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-
> > bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of maithe007
> > Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 1:42 PM
> > To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: User cannot download NIMAC sourced book
> >
> > No, but I would love to know about it. I have several author friends
> > who
> > are Ebook authors and now I am wondering how this will affect them.
> >
> > Hugs,
> >
> > Maithe
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Donna Goodin" <Goodind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 8:50 AM
> > Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: User cannot download NIMAC sourced book
> >
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I don't have kids, but am sorry for those of you who do. I wish
> that
> > > schools would boycott Nimac books until they get over themselves,
> but
> > > that's probably too much to hope for. *smile* Why Nimac can't get
> > that a
> > > blind parent might need to have access to their kids' schoolbooks I
> > just
> > > can't imagine.
> > >
> > > I was sharing this message with my husband, and he mentioned that
> > there is
> > > a law about etext that will be going before congress soon. Anyone
> > know
> > > anything about this?
> > > Best,
> > > Donna
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > >>From: "Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx"<Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>Sent: 2/16/08 3:55:34 AM
> > >>To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"<bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >>Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: User cannot download NIMAC sourced
> book
> > >>
> > >>We lost the battle to make NIMAC-sourced books available to blind
> > >>parents when we pushed this at the NIMAS/NIMAC committee meetings.
> > APH
> > >>has taken a careful view of what can be done with these books, and
> > the
> > >>publishers became less flexible as the discussions went on about
> this
> > >>because of other decisions they disagreed with. As someone said,
> > these
> > >>are political decisions that trade off different interests and
> access
> > >>for all suffers a bit in the process.
> > >>
> > >>The issue of permissions is a good one, and we're actually hiring
> for
> > a
> > >>full-time position to work with publishers and authors. We'll see
> > where
> > >>it leads.
> > >>
> > >>These books are beautifully formatted XML that should glide
> > effortlessly
> > >>into our collection. We're hoping to see more content like this.
> > >>
> > >>Jim
> > >>
> > >> To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
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> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
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> > 2/16/2008
> > > 2:16 PM
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> > >
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