[Dtb-talk] Status of BARD

Mon Sep 7 20:57:54 UTC 2015

Mike and Gregg,

I would add to this discussion that whether we like it or not, the tendency
to be careful of copyrights where accessible books are concerns goes beyond
the letter of the law.  With the expense of legal action, one can go broke
proving they are right.  We also can be benefited greatly if we can work
with publishers to get some of what we need in the United States to insure
the availability of accessible textbooks.  This does not apply to the
current BARD situation, but it does have relevance to Greg's statement that
there is too much concern over copyright law.  Frankly, publishers have more
money to throw into legal action than we do, so it makes a good deal of
sense to be careful unless one feels there is only one course to take.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

-----Original Message-----
From: Dtb-talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike
Freeman via Dtb-talk
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2015 3:20 PM
To: 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books' <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Mike Freeman <k7uij at panix.com>
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] Status of BARD

Greg:

This isn't the proper venue to carry on such discussions long-term. However,
in this instance, one of the other LOC services that's gone down is the one
handling online copyright applications; I could see some difficulty in
designating more than one server or system of servers to handle this. But
that's just speculation on my part.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Dtb-talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gregory
Kearney via Dtb-talk
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2015 10:42 AM
To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
Cc: Gregory Kearney
Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] Status of BARD

While your right that their hand may be tied and clearly Congress can not,
nor should not, escape some of the blame here. I see nothing in copyright
law which would prevent the library of congress from having a replication
server for backup at some other location however.

Copyright law gets used a great deal as an excuse to not do thing; or to
introduce FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) to many discussions involving
Braille and talking books. When ever it is I ask this one simple question:
"Can you provide an example of case law for the assertion?" Without case law
all such opinions about copyright las are simply that, opinions.

Commonwealth Braille & Talking Book Cooperative Greg Kearney, General
Manager #320, 185-911 Yates Street Victoria, BC V8V 4Y9 CANADA
Email: info at cbtbc.org

U.S. Address
21908 Almaden Av.
Cupertino, CA 95014
UNITED STATES
Email: gkearney at gmail.com

> On Sep 7, 2015, at 10:13 AM, Mike Freeman via Dtb-talk
<dtb-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Greg:
> You are correct: this is a larger issue involving the whole Library of
Congress and its systems. However, NLS is experimenting with a redundant
server for downloading books to iDevices.
> I suspect, however, that Congress (and, therefore, the GAO) is speaking
with forked tongue: the Library of Congress should modernize but don't ask
for additional funds to do it!
> Moreover, there may be issues involving copyright law, among other xst;
that make setting up of redundant servers problematic from a nontechnical
standpoint.
> In any event, I suspect NLS's hands are tied.
> 
> Mike Freeman
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gregory Kearney via Dtb-talk <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Monday, September 7, 2015 9:16
> Subject: Re: [Dtb-talk] Status of BARD
> 
>> 
>> 
>> While your right that this is a purely technical issues in the immediate
case, this does go to larger management issues. The national library I ran
in Australia, while not as big nor complex as the NLS system employed the
idea of replicated servers. So we had several servers in Australia and in
South Africa and Canada that were replications of the origin server in our
building. The ones in South Africa and Canada were two way replications so
we could get their books as well.
>> 
>> End users worked only from one of the replica servers, usually the one in
Perth. Should there be any kind of issue, power outage, network troubles and
so on, we simply redirected our URL to one of the other replications in
another location. This, albeit on a much more sophisticated scale is how
companies like Google function.
>> 
>> When we upgraded the software we would always shut down the replication
from the origin server in our building so that if we did something crazy and
broke things, it did happen, the replicated servers did not get the bad
configuration.
>> 
>> It would seem that this outage is, most likely, due to the fact that the
NLS/Library of Congress has no replication of their servers. So when their
network failed, and this appears to be a network issue not a server
configuration one as it is impacting other Library of Congress services and
not just BARD, they had no means to point to another location to continue,
at a minimum consumer, level service.
>> 
>> So there is an underling management issue at play here. This has been
reported prior to this event. A March 2015 report from the Government
Accountability Office (http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/669367.pdf) reported
that the library is "not effectively managing" its $119 million in IT
investments for fiscal year 2014, and is struggling in key areas such as
privacy controls.
>> 
>> This matter has now reached the media:
>> 
>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style-blog/wp/2015/09/04/library-
>> of-congresss-computer-woes-also-disrupt-national-service-for-blind-an
>> d-disabled-users/
>> 
>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/copyright-offices-onli
>> ne-registration-hasnt-worked-for-almost-a-week/2015/09/03/b12781e2-52
>> 61-11e5-9812-92d5948a40f8_story.html
>> 
>> http://fcw.com/articles/2015/09/02/copyright-registration.aspx
>> 
>> http://fcw.com/articles/2015/03/31/gao-library-of-congress.aspx
>> 
>> 
>> Commonwealth Braille & Talking Book Cooperative Greg Kearney, General 
>> Manager #320, 185-911 Yates Street Victoria, BC V8V 4Y9 CANADA
>> Email: info at cbtbc.org
>> 
>> U.S. Address
>> 21908 Almaden Av.
>> Cupertino, CA 95014
>> UNITED STATES
>> Email: gkearney at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Sep 7, 2015, at 6:50 AM, David Andrews via Dtb-talk
<dtb-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> No, it has nothing to do with budget, just large technical problems.
>>> 
>>> Dave
>>> 
>>> At 11:56 AM 9/5/2015, you wrote:
>>>> Thank you, does this have anything to do with the budget? If so, 
>>>> How can we make our voices heard on the importance of maintaining 
>>>> this site. Peace, Cheryl
>>>> 
>>>> On 9/4/15, Andrews, David B (DEED) via Dtb-talk <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
>>>>> As some of you know, BARD, NLS's digital book download site has 
>>>>> been down for several days.  Apparently the Library of Congress is 
>>>>> having various communications problems. NLS has recently said that 
>>>>> the site will be down for several more days, probably through Tuesday.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dave
>>> 
>>>       David Andrews and long white cane Harry.
>>> E-Mail:  dandrews at visi.com or david.andrews at nfbnet.org
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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