[Dtb-talk] NLS Digital Happenings Speech

[Greg Kearney]

On Apr 28, 2007, at 17:16 , Mike Freeman wrote:

> Peter:
>
> So are you adovcating that NLS not use the most efficient codec it  
> can find even if this saves taxpayers' money? I should think not.
>
> Moreover, it is the judgment of many in NFB who have been  
> intimately involved with the NLS effort that it is pursuing a wise  
> course. While these folks could be wrong, I think we at least owe  
> it to them to make ourselves aware of the complexities of the issue  
> before we manifest a front of disunity.
>
> Remember what Ben Franklin said: we must all hang together or we'll  
> all hang separately.
>
> Mike Freeman
>

I for one never questioned either the codec or the design of the  
player or the use of flash memory.

  I question the encryption which makes it hard to develop players  
and would make the books unplayable in either other players or  
computers. How do we tell the book that a particular user on a  
particular computer is an "authorized" user? Further encryption make  
it difficult to move books from one media to another finally  
encryption only encourages hackers to set to their task. It give  
nothing to the consumer, it offers no protection to the copyright  
holder. IT adds needless complexity to the program and hinders the  
development of playback hardware and software.

Here is a simple step that will provide some protection while not  
interfering with the legal users. Continue to use the special codec,  
also when you make up the daisy files name the audio file with random  
strings so that anyone attempting to put the book back together as to  
figure out which file goes where. True the could always look into the  
ncx and smil to get the files back into playable order but this would  
slow dow the process. Nothing we can do will ever stop a determined  
thief.