[macvoiceover] Re: no nls for ipod ever:
- From: Bryan Smart <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:14:41 -0400
As I understand it, their reasons are technical, , not ideological.
In order to distribute the books, they're required to be certain that only
blind people can access the material. To date, this has been possible by making
the books available on blind-person-only devices like the Stream and
Icon/Braille+. Of course, a sighted person could purchase one of these, but
probably wouldn't want to. Further, these devices have advanced rights
protection features, and a sighted person wouldn't be able to easily obtain a
decryption key.
Though rights protection can be frustrating at some times, NLS has tried to
make this as painless as possible by only requiring authorization for the
device, not each piece of content. For example, once your device is authorized,
you can download as much content as you want from their web site. You can
archive the content in any way that suits you, and play it on any player that
you own that is authorized. You never need to ask for permission to play a
specific book, worry about files that expire, etc. As rights protection goes,
this is a very friendly, easy to use, and flexible system.
There is no technical way to secure content on PCs to the same degree that is
possible with the current hardware players. All that would need to happen on a
PC is for someone to manually hack the player application, and the hacked
player would be able to play any book from the collection. With the unlimited
download capability on the NLS site, you'd have a huge problem with
unauthorized people downloading mountains of books, building their own
collections, and sharing them. The only partial solution would be for NLS to
start acting like Audible, enforcing download limits, requiring you to obtain
per-book authorization, and forcing files to expire. And, even then, the
content would still be quite vulnerable, while increasing the frustration level
for all of the honest users that must now deal with complex rights protection.
The IPod and IPhone are secure platforms, but ITunes is not. Since ITunes is
used to manage content on the Apple players, NLS probably sees ITunes as just
as big of a security hole as any PC player.
Of course, anyone that is determined enough can break any sort of protection.
However, NLS must make these efforts, or else they'll be viewed as contributing
to unauthorized reproduction. I'm not fully up on the legal side of why they do
this, but I bet that they're working under some modified form of the exemption
in the DMCA that allows them to produce these audio books in an alternative
format without having to seek approval for each individual book from the
copyright holder. Reproducing audio books as specially formatted talking books
on specialized players can probably stand legally as an acceptable alternative
format, while making them available through a PC application is not looked on
in the same way.
Maybe if the books could be downloaded over the air directly to an IPod Touch
or IPhone, they could have legal cover, but I don't think that a sync with
ITunes would stand.
As it is, you can buy a Stream for about $300. That is dirt cheap as far as
assistive tech goes, and it is a far better book player than any IPod. If
you're too broke to afford a Stream, you can get a free digital player from
your library.
I'd like to play their books on my other devices, but I think that their hands
are legally tied in this regard.
Bryan
-----Original Message-----
From: macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:macvoiceover-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Poehlman
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 10:29 AM
To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [macvoiceover] no nls for ipod ever:
All;
I've received information that nls will not make it possible to play their
digital talking books on ipods and iphones etc.
This is indeed distressing and if you are concerned, please contact the
administration of the nls digital talking book program, your state
representatives and your state legislature to boost this. It is of grave
concern to voiceover users since the ipod is the most widely used portable
digital media player available and the books are after all digital media.
Further, it has come to my attention that software will not be produced or
authorized by NLS for the purpose of reading digital talking books on any
computer which effectively stonewalling itunes from accessing them legally. If
we were to undertake an illegal approach, we'd be punnished in some way or
another if they found out yet they leave no alternative avenue open and this is
after all tax payer dollar we are talking about.
Why shoule we be forced to purchase or be handed a proprietary player that is
over priced when we already have players as inexpensive as the ipod nano at
under $60 at our disposal. I know the nano might not be able to play a huge
book, but most books are not huge and many of us have ipods larger in capacity
than the nano and wiITunes is available and accessible on both platforms.
Thanks for listening.
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