[DTB-Talk] Censorship, NLS Alert

Sun Jul 28 14:57:51 UTC 2019

Well I hope we've alllearned our lesson. I myself ignore all such
alarmist messages especially from the original poster. they usually
turn out like this one did, much ado about nothing.

Laz

On 7/27/19, Peter Donahue via DTB-Talk <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hello Sherry and everyone,
>
> 	Neither Mary nor I wrote to her. Praise God for positioning ourselves so we
> could self-fund the blindness products and services we need such as buying
> accessible Braille and audio books from sources other than lending
> libraries. This isn't bragging! It's protecting ourselves from falsely
> accusing someone for something that after closer investigation wasn't really
> their fault. Now to find another good read.
>
> Peter Donahue
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DTB-Talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sherri via
> DTB-Talk
> Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2019 9:12 PM
> To: 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'
> Cc: Sherri
> Subject: Re: [DTB-Talk] Censorship, NLS Alert
>
> Now that we have all written to Judy Dixon, that is sad!  I guess that's
> what happens when we jump to conclusions.  Thanks for researching this out.
>
> Sherri
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DTB-Talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Greg
> Kearney via DTB-Talk
> Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2019 4:50 PM
> To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Greg Kearney <gkearney at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [DTB-Talk] Censorship, NLS Alert
>
> A bit of investigation has given me to a possible explanation as to what
> happened here.
>
> First the NLS annotation for this title indicates that this is a commercial
> audio book:
>
> Travis, Randy; Abraham, Ken. Reading time: 9 hours, 48 minutes.
> Read by Rory Feek.
>
> Music Appreciation and History
>
> Memoir of country music star. Chronicles his troubled childhood, the
> relationship with the woman who became both his manager and his wife, the
> ups and downs of his career, and his difficult divorce. Discusses how his
> faith sustained him, especially after the stroke that almost killed him.
> Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.
>
> It turns out that there are at least two version of the audio book edition.
> One was produced by Thomas Neilson, the original books publisher and a
> second version produced by Harper Collins Christian Publishing, both are
> imprints of the larger Harper Collins. Rory Feek was the narrator for both
> versions.
>
> The difference here is that books from Harper Collins Christian Publishing
> will be devoid of "strong language" So Harper Collins simply takes the
> Thomas Neilson recording and edits out the strong words for the Harper
> Collins Christian Publishing version rather than re-recording the whole book
> or even part of the book. My bet is that the print editions from Harper
> Collins Christian Publishing just have the offending word blacked out in the
> text. Harper Collins Christian Publishing uses the Christian Writer's Manual
> of Style: 4th Edition which has cautions against the use of such language.
>
> So when the NLS arranged to get the commercial recordings what they got was
> the Harper Collins Christian Publishing version which is what you hear. Of
> course they, the NLS, would have no way to know that there were these two
> version of the recording. It no like they are going to have someone sit down
> and play the whole recording looking for these sorts of things.
>
> So I suspect this is the cause of this issue. Perhaps the NLS should
> instruct the audiobook publishers that they are only interested in unedited
> and of course unabridged recordings of the original published text. In any
> event I don't thing this was anything deliberate on the part of the NLS.
>
>
> Greg Kearney
>
>> On Jul 27, 2019, at 11:27 AM, Peter Donahue via DTB-Talk
>> <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> 	I thought that the alert you sometimes encounter in Talkingbook Topics
>> and Braille Book Review was supposed to alert readers that a book
>> contained "Strong language, explicit descriptions of sex, and
>> violence."This alone should be enough to alert readers to such books to
>> allow them to choose wisely if they find such material to be offensive to
>> them. Amazon and other commercial book sellers have similar practices.
>> Amazon extends their "Explicit" alert to songs and other digital media.
>>
>> 	If it can be proven that censorship is really going on this is
>> unexcusable. All material book producers for the blind offer need to
>> contain all of their original content. First we must be certain that
>> censorship is really going on before further action is taken and locate
>> other sources of books we choose to read that may have been censored by
>> the NLS. All the best.
>>
>> Peter Donahue
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: DTB-Talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Pamela
>> Dominguez via DTB-Talk
>> Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2019 10:58 AM
>> To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
>> Cc: Pamela Dominguez
>> Subject: Re: [DTB-Talk] Bard sensoring certain material?
>>
>> I have not ever known that BARD has done abridged books.  The only time I
>> remember seeing an abridged book is when I got one in braille that was a
>> hand-copied, thermoform braille book done by another agency.  That was
>> back
>> in the 1970s.  The book was called Intern by Dr. X.  Pam.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Peter Donahue via DTB-Talk
>> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2019 5:07 PM
>> To: 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'
>> Cc: Peter Donahue
>> Subject: Re: [DTB-Talk] Bard sensoring certain material?
>>
>> Good afternoon everyone,
>>
>> Praise God for iBooks, Amazon Kindle, Audiobooks.com, and Audible. It may
>> be
>> that BARD is only recording abridge versions of books hence the disrespect
>>
>> for its patrons. Mary downloads an occasional book fromBARD. I can't
>> remember when the last time was when I read a book from NLS. Its
>> collection
>> is seriously lacking when it comes to the type of books I read many
>> dealing
>> with agriculture, Gospel, Inspiration, computer topics, and travel.
>>
>> Solution? Do some dumpster diving to raise the needed funds to buy
>> unabridged versions of books and know that you're getting what you paid
>> for
>> and no disrespect is shown. Around here self-funding products and services
>>
>> we use to live independently is job one! Before anyone thinks we were
>> borne
>> with silver spoons in our mouth we know what its like living on Social
>> Security and eating pancakes for supper. The difference was seazing
>> opportunity when it came our way to improve our financial situation. If we
>>
>> don't want blindness agencies like the NLS deciding what material is
>> appropriate for us to read and what isn't it's our responsibility to find
>> ways to buy our own books in accessible media. Several solutions now exist
>>
>> that allow us to do that.
>>
>> By the way www.audiobooks.com is available on many types of devices
>> including Apple TV. We found a few titles available via audiobooks.com
>> that
>> aren't available through any other service including the NLS and
>> Bookshare.org. You can sign up for a 30-day free trial which we plan to do
>>
>> when we get paid. All the best.
>>
>> Peter Donahue who hopes Audible comes to Apple TV Under tvOS 13.
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: DTB-Talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sherri
>> via
>> DTB-Talk
>> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2019 2:29 PM
>> To: 'Discussion of Digital Talking Books'
>> Cc: Sherri
>> Subject: Re: [DTB-Talk] Bard sensoring certain material?
>>
>> Oh this is not good.  Did not use to be this way!  Why are they treating
>> us
>> like children?
>>
>> Sherri
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: DTB-Talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cheryl
>> Osborn via DTB-Talk
>> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2019 3:23 PM
>> To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Cheryl Osborn <chapalacheryl at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [DTB-Talk] Bard sensoring certain material?
>>
>> Very well put. Thank you for saying that.
>>
>> Cheryl Osborn
>>
>>
>>> On Jul 26, 2019, at 1:49 PM, Dale Leavens via DTB-Talk
>>> <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> I resent the patronizing attitude toward us as blind people, like
>>> children
>>> who apparently don’t have sufficient personalities to discern for
>>> ourselves.
>>>
>>>
>>> Many of us Canadians don’t understand how carefully American television
>>> sensor language on television broadcasts but so readily show often
>>> gratuitous violence of the most graphical type.
>>>
>>> I suppose culture is a complicated thing and very personal
>>>
>>> Still, I resent having to accept other people’s values being imposed on
>>> me
>>> just because I have no visual acuity.
>>>
>>> Cheers.
>>>
>>>
>>> Dale Leavens
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Jul 26, 2019, at 2:06 PM, Christopher Gilland via DTB-Talk
>>>> <dtb-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> OK, I just made a discovery today which does not at all make me the
>>>> slightest bit happy.
>>>>
>>>> I'm not one for swearing, however, neither am I one for sensorship.
>>>>
>>>> I was listening to a book which I'd downloaded from Bard, come to think
>>>> of it, this was the 2nd title I've noticed this. I'm only quoting here
>>>> from a book, so please do not ban me for a simple quotation, and not
>>>> that
>>>> of my own remark, but one line in the book said, "by the look on her
>>>> face, you would have thought she didn't give a shit." What you actually
>>>> heard however in the downloaded Bard recording was, she didn't give a...
>>>>
>>>> bee'eep. The only way I know they said the word s h i t is because it's
>>>> a
>>>> commurcial audio book, and, it just so happens that I downloaded the
>>>> original mainstream recording from Audible, as I was very curious if
>>>> they
>>>> actually bleeped the word in the mainstream recording. I've found most
>>>> audio books Bard or not, if there is a swear word, regardless cultural
>>>> beliefs etc, the narrator *has* to say it. If you're a pro narrator,
>>>> from
>>>> what I understand, you have to put emotions and things like that aside
>>>> in
>>>> order for the recording to past quality control screening. Anyway, on
>>>> the
>>>> actual Audible version, same narrator, same recording, etc, it was not
>>>> bleeped out. I could make out the word clear as night and day.
>>>>
>>>> This led me to check the other book to see if the book did the same
>>>> thing. I downloaded the Bard book again to my shelf, went to the chapter
>>>>
>>>> in question, and listened through Bard. The line was, and no, even
>>>> quoting, I'm not gonna repeat this word as it's way more offensive to
>>>> many than the sh word, but basically, the line was, it was f**king
>>>> crazy.
>>>>
>>>> The narrator on the Bard version said, effing crazy. When I listened to
>>>> the version on Audible, and even checked the actual print text through a
>>>>
>>>> scanned copy on Bookshare, the actual F word was there. Again, I ab,
>>>> suh,
>>>> lootly! do not condone that type language, however, that said, come on!
>>>> It's a book for Pete sake!
>>>>
>>>> Why're Bard narrators all of a sudden unlike before being coached
>>>> evidently to not just read what is on the page? Both these books were
>>>> fairly newer titles. Bard didn't seem to used to do this.
>>>>
>>>> What changed?
>>>>
>>>> Chris.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
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>
>
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