[nfb-talk] Bard

Wed Jul 14 20:30:31 UTC 2010

John,

The basic structure of NLS audio books on BARD is DAISY.  There are software DAISY players around already.  DAISY can contain either text or audio with other 
files defining the structure of the book.  The issue as I understand it with NLS books is that the audio itself is encrypted.  When you buy a device that can play these 
books, you must register the device and then get an authorization file that you place on the device itself, such as the BookSense, and routines in the device use 
that authorization file to activate it's ability to play the audio on these books.  You would therefore likely attract some unwanted attention if you were to undertake 
soch a project.  <smile>  The makers of players that can read these books agree to not register a player unless it has been verified that the owner is receiving NLS 
services.  

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:05:24 -0500, John G. Heim wrote:

>No, you didn't misunderstand my question. I just didn't think about the 
>restrictions.  Well, that's kind of a bummer though. I was thinking of 
>seeing if I could write a linux program to play a book downloaded from bard. 
>I used to sort of do that kind of thing for a living. I worked for a company 
>that wrote software for medical scanners and part of my job was to reverse 
>engineer image file formats. There is nothing illegal about taking a data 
>file and writing a program to read it. You can legally write an mp3 decoder 
>but you can't write an mp3 encoder.  But there might be special laws 
>regarding bard books. So maybe I'd better not write an open source linux 
>bard player. It probably couldn't be done anyway. Most likely, the content 
>is encrypted.

>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
>To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 9:28 AM
>Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Bard

>> John,
>>
>> Maybe I am misunderstanding your question, but the Victor Reader Stream, 
>> the BookSense from GW Micro, and the BookPort Plus from the American 
>> Printing
>> House for the Blind can all play BARD books, and I think the Plex-Talker 
>> from IRTI can also do it.  It is unlikely that note-takers will be able to 
>> play audio NLS books
>> because NLS is shying away from players that have a software component 
>> that could be compromised by someone seeking to decode books.  Of course, 
>> the
>> above players all have software components, but the systems are 
>> proprietary and users don't have the ability to easily load software on 
>> these devices that could be
>> used to tap into the logic associated with decoding the audio on these 
>> books.  Web Braille books which will become part of BARD can be played on 
>> Note-Takers,
>> though, since it is felt that the translation to grade two braille is an 
>> effective obstacle to making such books available to the public.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Steve Jacobson
>>
>> On Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:42:08 -0500, John G. Heim wrote:
>>
>>>Can you buy a commercial player for the books from bard? I have 2 cassette
>>>book players in addition to the one the library sent me. But I don't have
>>>any way to play a book downloaded from the bard site except on the player
>>>they sent me.
>>
>>>I would think that the newer braille notetakers will be able to play books
>>>from bard. I own a Pac Mate and it can recognize a book downloaded from 
>>>bard
>>>but it cannot play it.
>>
>>>----- Original Message ----- 
>>>From: "Wm. Ritchhart" <william.ritchhart at sbcglobal.net>
>>>To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>>Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:04 PM
>>>Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Bard
>>
>>
>>>>I really like the new digital talking book player.  I do wish it was 
>>>>still
>>>> smaller and lighter.  With all my swimming gear, lunch, back-up cane and
>>>> everything else I have in my gym bag; it is still too heavy.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>>>> On
>>>> Behalf Of Steve Johnson
>>>> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 8:22 PM
>>>> To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
>>>> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Bard
>>>>
>>>> John, I have not tried one myself yet, so this is good to know.  Thanks,
>>>> Steve
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
>>>> On
>>>> Behalf Of John G. Heim
>>>> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 3:26 PM
>>>> To: NFB Talk Mailing List
>>>> Subject: [nfb-talk] Bard
>>>>
>>>> Man, I just got one of those new digital book players from the National
>>>> Library Service.  You might wonder why a computer nerd like myself took 
>>>> so
>>>> long to ask for one of those things. Well, I guess mostly the reason is
>>>> that
>>>> I have 2 tape players that I bought myself plus the one from NLS. So now 
>>>> I
>>>> have to use the player from the NLS all of the time.
>>>>
>>>> But holy cow, is this thing nice. I downloaded a book and put it on a 
>>>> USB
>>>> thumb drive and was listening to a book amybe 3 minutes after getting
>>>> started. And navigation within the book is very nice.
>>>>
>>>> Your tax dollars at work.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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