[Dtb-talk] I Guess That Several People Know.

[Greg Kearney]

>
> All you need to do is go to the NLS home page for a link to what the  
> new
> player is and what it will do.
>
>
>
> http://www.loc.gov/nls/
>
>


Here is what the NLS sight does not tell you however:

1. There the second USB port the one they say is "Next to the jack is  
a USB port for repair personnel to use for diagnostic information."  
Can also be used for playing books from commercial USB pen drives. A  
rather important feature to omit mentioning don't you think?

2. That the player can also play unencrypted DAISY 2.02 and DIASY/NISO  
2002 books but not likely the latest standard DIAYS/NISO 2005 books.

3. That the player can play MP3 files in name order from a USB pen  
drive.

4 That those special cartridges are nothing more than standard USB pen  
drives wrapped in a special plastic case.

But as I have said my complaint is not with the players which are fine  
machine well designed and from what I have been able to to tell, from  
my very limited contact with them, work very well. Even possessing  
features the NLS does not disclose.

My issue surround the encryption that the books will use. How much  
effort, money and time that such has taken up which has, increased the  
cost of the players and more importantly delayed the introduction of  
the digital talking books in the United States. A protection scheme  
that, until it is broken, which it will be, prevents the patron from  
playing the books on the player of their choice, adds needless cost  
and complexity to any player. All to protect the publishers from a  
danger that they themselves ignore and which, had the NLS not called  
attention to itself with encryption, would likely never have been a  
problem in the first place.

Why would anyone steal NLS recordings when you can go to your public  
library and get them for free? Wouldn't the limited distribution that  
NLS book get provide the publishers with the protection the library  
feels they need without inconvenience to the patrons? Remember that it  
is clear the the publishers do not care. Perhaps the NLS could have  
worked out an arrangement with the publishers to permit them, the  
publishers, to sell the NLS recording of the books to the general  
public while the NLS could have access to the commercially done  
recording for their patrons. In this way the number of recorded book  
both for the disabled and the general public would have been greatly  
expanded and the NLS would have been saved the time, trouble and  
expense of recording title for which recordings already existed.

Greg Kearney