Re: Digital Talking Book Standard

[Brent Harding <bharding@doorpi.net>]

I don't think the drm will work in the long run. It has to be proprietary
to not allow hacking, anyone who has the source code can hack a program to
undo what the original did. I heard some of the stronger drm's out
interfere with screen reader use, meaning we're stepping backwards in
accessibility, as we'd have to have sighted help to read a book we once
could get in speech on the computer because of this technology, and the way
screen readers access the system.
At 09:00 AM 11/19/01 -0600, you wrote:
>	I certainly hope that players for DTB's will be available
>for Linux when the technology actually begins to bear fruit.
>
>	This truly is a wonderful next step in the Talking Book
>program. Just think of the logistical problems of moving and
>caring for physical materials that this solves.  There will still
>need to be traditional Talking Books for many years to come, but
>I think this is the future and it may get to a point where there
>won't need to be as many physical recordings produced as there
>are now.
>
>	The one thing I see as holding things up is the one
>artificial technical issue and that is DRM or Digital Rights
>Management.
>
>	How is that going to be accomplished?  The standards
>document simply says that digital rights management will be
>supported but probably wisely does not prescribe exactly what
>sort of mechanism will be used.
>
>	Hopefully, being eligible to receive traditional Talking
>Books and Braille materials will enable one to also receive any
>DTB's they are entitled to receive.
>
>	In the main-stream consumer world, digital rights
>management has not been doing too well.  Some systems are hacked
>almost before they are released.  Other systems tend to do the
>opposite and malfunction in ways their developers never thought
>of to cause honest users of the technology to be denied service.
>
>	Some rights management systems have even gained the
>distinction of suffering from both maladies.  The crackers
>de fang the protection and the honest users discover that the
>software thinks they are thieves because of something their
>equipment or they accidentally did.
>
>	This issue, not technology, has held up everything from
>digital audio tape a decade or so ago to present-day high-definition
>television systems.
>
>	Linux and FreeBSD should actually be good test beds for
>this technology because it is based on open-source models and any
>hanky panky mechanisms such as back doors or scripting
>applications are a little easier to police than they are in
>proprietary operating systems.
>
>Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
>OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Network Operations Group
>
>
>
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