[Dtb-talk] iPhone/iPad/iPod touch NLS Playback question

Greg Kearney gkearney at gmail.com
Sun May 16 12:29:40 UTC 2010 

I guess I should explain a bit more what we are asking and thinking  
about here.

Daisy Bookworm and Olearia  were written primarily to support books  
from our library at ABWA as well as Vision Australia and RNZFB. They  
will read any non encrypted DAISY book. As it happens this means every  
book from every other library for the blind in the world. The sole  
exceptions are RFB&D, who we are working with to provide playback, and  
the NLS system.

What we are looking into is to have the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch  
hardware authorised as playback device in the same way that the  
VictorReader Stream is authorised. That is to say that the hardware  
itself would be identified as belonging to an authorised user. In the  
case of the VictorReader Stream this is done by serial number and an  
authorisation key tied to that number. A similar thing could be done  
with the iPhone/iPad/iPod there by providing proof that the owner of  
such was an authorised user. In effect the iPhone/iPad/iPod is nothing  
more than a playback device like the Stream and could be treated the  
same way.

I must admit that the status of all of this in U.S. Copyright law has  
be a bit confused to say the least. Let take a look at two  
organisations both producing copyrighted works under U.S. law:

The NLS seems to be saying that it is a requirment under the law that  
books be in an encrypted format playable only on special authorised  
devices.

Bookshare on the other hand says that it can provide, in many cases  
the text of the same books, in clear text requiring only that the user  
have a user name and password to download and unpack the same. Once a  
Bookshare title has been unzipped all of the text is in a human  
readable for and can be simply transformed into any number of formats  
in much the same way Braille can be back translated.

So who is in the right here? it is the same book and if anything the  
Bookshare version would be even more valuable to pirates as it has the  
text of the book and not simply a recording. Both these claims can not  
at the same time be true the law either requires encryption and  
special devices or it does not.

In any event there are many technical issues to solve, most notably  
the issues surrounding the playback of the audio in the NLS format and  
we may never be able to do that and preserve battery life.

So to be clear here we are not asking the NLS to change the format of  
their books and we are clearly not asking or suggesting that anyone  
"share" the book with unauthorised users. Right now we are only asking  
what the process is to get a device authorised for NLS playback as  
other devices have been in the past and to what extent if any there is  
interest in the print disabled community in having such playback on  
the iPhone/iPad/iPod.



Gregory Kearney
Manager - Accessible Media
Association for the Blind of Western Australia
61 Kitchener Avenue, PO Box 101
Victoria Park 6979, WA Australia

Telephone: +61 (08) 9311 8202
Telephone: +1 (307) 224-4022 (North America)
Fax: +61 (08) 9361 8696
Toll free: 1800 658 388 (Australia only)
Email: gkearney at gmail.com

On 16/05/2010, at 7:09 PM, Fr. John Sheehan wrote:

> You have to remember that NLS is governed by the publishers. As long  
> as their material is in a proprietary format, they can issue the  
> materials without worrying about copyright. Braille is a proprietary  
> format - and when they went to audio, NLS devised its own unique  
> system first for tape, now digital. If they open it up for wider  
> use, they will be required to get individual copyright permission  
> for each work, or pay. Either would cripple the service. But in  
> terms of "sharing" with more popular devices, they don't really have  
> much choice. Remember how the publishers and then authors reacted  
> when the Kindle 2 was released with its text to speech feature? Same  
> issue.
> Fr. John R. Sheehan, SJ
> Chairman
>
>
> Xavier Society for the Blind
> 154 East 23rd St
> New York, NY 10010
> (212) 473-7800
> Help us raise money for the Xavier Society for the Blind just by  
> searching the Internet or shopping online with GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com 
>  - powered by Yahoo! Free for you - and money for us! Thank you.
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Lynn Evans <evans-lynn at comcast.net>
> To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sat, May 15, 2010 2:46:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] iPhone/iPad/iPod touch NLS Playback question
>
> Just being a smart ass here:
>
> With all the emails flying back and forth here, we haven't yet  
> convinced NLS
> to release their proprietary format?
>
> hmmmmm
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Flint Million" <fmillion at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2010 1:50 PM
> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] iPhone/iPad/iPod touch NLS Playback question
>
>
> I think another possible issue is that the iPod has an AAC/MP3 decoder
> in hardware, but not an AMR-WB+ decoder. I may be completely wrong on
> that since the iPhone is probably using some kind of AMR audio for the
> phone component, but I have never read any specs on it. Also it'd  be
> logical that the iPod touch would lack such a decoder even if one is
> in the iPhone. (And it could also be that the iPhone's decoder, if
> any, is part of the GSM hardware itself and not part of the media
> playback chipset.) This would mean we'd be reduced to decoding the
> book content in software, which would potentially reduce battery life.
> One of the selling points of the iPod touch is its seriously long
> playback time - they rate it at about 30 hours for music, which
> matches our big tabletop NLS players - but they achieve this by doing
> as much as they can in hardware using specialized very-low-power
> chips. Anything done in software on the device eats the battery life
> away, because the main processor, while efficient, can't compete with
> a specialized low-power decoding chip for media content.
>
> And of course, the issue still stands with how to get the book content
> on to the device. I may be wrong, but I think Apple disapproves of
> methods of loading content that involve simple drag-and-drop. All of
> the apps I've seen available on the app store for content consumption
> require you to either use WebDAV or FTP or a traditional web server
> style upload mechanism. This adds yet another complexity to the
> process. Apple's App Store policies seem to include some unwritten
> rules about things like this (I'm sure some have heard the stories of
> apps being rejected for no apparent reason), so this is just another
> thing to worry about.
>
> FM
>
>
> On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 10:03 PM, Mike Freeman <k7uij at panix.com>  
> wrote:
>> Besides, multi-use devices do each of their functions with equal
>> mediocrity!
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Burke, Dan (DSS)" <burke at mso.umt.edu 
>> >
>> To: "Discussion of Digital Talking Books" <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 10:35 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] iPhone/iPad/iPod touch NLS Playback question
>>
>>
>>> It's logical - everybody is searching for a single multi-use  
>>> device. I
>>> would love to be able to use my smart phone to read Daisy and NLS.
>>>
>>> But htis is not a world that always makes sense, is it?
>>> (grin)
>>> Dan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dan Burke
>>> Assistant Director/Assistive Technology Coordinator
>>>
>>> Disability Services for Studentstss
>>> The University of Montana
>>> Emma B. Lommasson Center 154
>>> Missoula, MT 59812
>>>
>>> 406.24.4424
>>> 406.243.5330 FAX
>>>
>>> www.umt.edu/disability
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org 
>>> ]
>>> On Behalf Of Eric SS
>>> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 4:21 AM
>>> To: 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'
>>> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] iPhone/iPad/iPod touch NLS Playback question
>>>
>>> I would think anyone who currently uses one of the dedicated NLS- 
>>> capable
>>> devices and has an Iphone/Touch/Pad, would be very happy to be  
>>> able to
>>> use
>>> just one device. I know a couple of folks who don't use the NLS  
>>> digital
>>> service because they do not want to deal with another device, but  
>>> would
>>> become enthusiastic users if they could listen on their Iphone, etc.
>>>
>>> Eric SS
>>>
>>>
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>>
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