Slashdot Mirror
Libraries Use DRM to Expire Audiobooks
Valleye writes "CNN is reporting that some US libraries are using Microsoft Media DRM to automatically 'return' audiobooks checked out of their catalog. A patron with a valid library card visits a library Web site to borrow a title for, say, three weeks. When the audiobook is due, the patron must renew it or find it automatically "returned" in a virtual sense: The file still sits on the patron's computer, but encryption makes it unplayable beyond the borrowing period."
It is a licensed work, with a finite number of licenses.
This is similiar to group licensing schemes, where software is licensed for a number of seats at a company but licensing is handled by a server. A limited number of users can use the software at any time. If someone needs to use it and the licenses are used up, someone else must stop using it for the time being (or more licenses must be purchased).
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
'Necessary'.
Dunno how the laws handle it where you live, but in Germany it's absolutely legal to make copies this way (as long as you do NOT give it to others).
:)
We have a right to make a private copy as long as we do not BREAK a copy-protection.
Lucky us
Pure software methods always get cracked
Always can theoretically get cracked. This doesn't mean that they always HAVE been cracked.
With DRM, the guy gets to take the "sign" home for a few weeks at a time, until he can manage to crack it -- and once he does, you don't have any clue that he's done it.
Which is why we should expect two tier DRM to become a standard pretty soon, first level to "protect", second level to "inform", so sure you can crack the protection, but it then sends a message to inform. Of course some people will be able to detect this, but how many? Next time you use MS Media Player and it "connects to server" how can you be sure its not informing MS of violations?
And before anyone bleats about "civil rights", this is the same as those car trackers that get activated when a car is stolen. If you don't steal something then it doesn't inform, if you break the seal it then informs.
People who see digital audio as a free lunch are the people ensuring that the goverment restricts liberties for everyone.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
The point here is that there is only a license for 1 person to read it at once -- and it is the library's responsibility to enforce that, otherwise they would be unlawfully distributing the work.
This has been a public service announcement.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
Shock! Ya know Joe Schmoe probably seeks out and downloads more software than any of us tech geniuses because he doesn't know the dangers of running arbitary software on his computer and/or trusts his antispyware apps to keep him safe.
How we know is more important than what we know.
"One question though: Does it run on linux?"
Not according to the article. It's WMA, and also won't run on iPods. Although this seems to be done through the library essentially outsourcing to another company, so perhaps some Linux-friendly companies will get into this...
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
Can't MPlayer play WMA files? I swear I remember using it to do that, although I doubt it could get around the DRM anyway. Might be worth a shot, though.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Audio books, unlike great most of electronic media, suffer very little quality loss from analog ripping. Just grab the audio stream and re-encode it as MP3. Sure you lose some audio quality, but unlike in music, in case of books it doesn't matter all that much at all - the voice may sound different, there may be a little more noise, but the content will be still just as understandable.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Mplayer does play WMA as far as I know, so putting the dll in the right place could do the trick. It is not very userfriendly though.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Libraries should not go anywhere near MS products, especially its DRM. The Unesco manifest for public libraries contain a number of points including these four:
- well informed public
- sustainable development
- freedom
- democratic values
Here's how they tie in:Well-informed public: Money spend on acquiring, maintaining or merely operating ICT tools is money not spent on actual information resources or patron service. In addition to acquisition, maintenance, operating, and licensing costs (or lack there of) for ICT, the frequency with which these costs occur is as important as the magnitude.
DRM is simply too tied to a specific vendor / platform / product to be anything other than a cost sink. The data is not in the control of the library because the data format and the codecs needed use the DRM'd data are not. To make matters worse, the actual life cycle of the data formats and codecs is out of the hands of the library, so even if they retain the DRM'd data, it still can expire through lack of tools. And you can't make your own tools either, the EUCD/DMCA make that a serious crime even if the DRM is as simple as ROT-13.
Sustainable development: Historically, Microsoft has used new formats and protocols to drive new sales of software which in turn have driven sales of new hardware. Losing control of the data means that libraries then have no say in when or how to replace hardware or software. That causes problems locally, by hitting the library budget. That causes problems globally by hitting the environment with the discarded carcasses of computers, which are full of poisonous, non-biodegradable materials, including heavy metals. These machines are said to take as much resources as the now infamous SUV to produce.
Simply put, given uniform costs over the years (for the sake of argument), a five year replacement cycle is 40% less load/cost than a three year cycle. A six year replacement cycle is 50% cheaper than a three year cycle. In comparison to a two year cycle, which the vendors are trying to achieve, five and six year cycles are 60% and 67% cheaper.
Freedom: What part about not-Free (as in Freedom) don't you understand? Interoperability is the basis for freedom in this context. Without adherence to standards, there can be no interoperability. Therefore, vendors that fail to follow standards also causes similar problems and vendors that *chronically* introduce broken implementations of standards, whether as part of an "embrace, extend, extinguish" strategy or not, should also be avoided. Vendors that force proprietary protocols, formats and codecs should likewise be avoided for similar reasons. Specifically, the vendor in question, Microsoft, seems to have had difficulty following standards, particularly if the problems interfere with competing products. Examples include ODBC, Kerberos, and even TCP/IP and HTTP, to name only a few.
Democratic values: Vendors that chronically engage in illegal and unethical behavior are probably not likely to work towards support of democratic values either through daily operation in society or through the capabilities of their products. So far, MS has proven to be one of the worst in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Most sound cards are full-duplex and allow the input to be the mixer or "as you hear it". So, they effectively already have a loopback built into them. I've done this before in Windows.
- Set the input to be the mixer or the "as you hear it" function
- Start the Sound Recorder (or other sound editing program)
- Open the audio file in another tool
- Start recording
- Start playing
- Done
Even then, how many of us have multiple computers? Here is a simple and effective DRM disabler:
Line out (PC 1) --> Line in (PC 2)
That's the thing that fervent, DRM supports just don't seem to understand. If you can hear it, you can record it.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
And to refute some of your points:
In the end, what you have is a copyright holder sacrificing some revenue so an institution may have the priviledge to provide information to the public, i.e. you. It would be rude and unethical to go against the copyright holders wishes.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
See, everyone here is completely missing the point. Not just a little off, but TOTALLY MISSING. (at least in the first 40 comments, that I read before I clicked reply)
Going to the library and borrowing a book that belongs to the library does not transfer you ownership of that book. This is why they call it BORROW. That doesn't change if it's a book on cassette, or a book on CD, or a book on any other kind of media.
Unless you (collective) can suggest a better alternative than "per unit ownership", which I highly doubt you (collective) will be able to do, that's the way it is going to work. You don't go to a library to permanently take their book. And it's not the scarcity of it that makes it need to be returned. They own one, they can loan one. The library could make a zillion copies on their copier, but they DON'T because they've only paid for the number that are in the library. And what do you pay to get a book from your local library? or a magazine? or a CD? or whatever?
Everywhere I've been the use of the library was free for city residents, and a once a year minimal charge for non-city residents. In fact, where I'm at now, the entire resources of the library are free, including internet access (though they do give you a fifteen minute time limit if there are other people waiting to use the machines). The only thing I've had to pay for there is paper for the copier/printer.
So, who's got a better idea for how to sell a book, a CD, a movie, a whatever, than on a per-unit basis?
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
~~~
My local library is a part of a group that uses DRM books. You login to the system, download an application that interrupts a custom XML stream. The XML file then has key and paths for downloading the media files. Then it downloads the file and boom, you have a book (audio or textual) for three weeks of use with an option of burning it to CD.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
This is the crux of the DRM problem: YOU DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!!! These libraries will be paying $5k in perpetuity if they want to continue to provide these books.
It's like Napster2, if you decide to stop paying, you lose all of your music. If they raise their fees, you pay. If they change license terms, you pay. If they go out of business, you pay (someone else).
Sounds like someone's going to be getting a raise, because this is pure genius on the part of NetLibrary and OverDrive.
ACHTUNG! Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
As such, it's reasonable to assume that no one in the supply chain for the creation of the work itself is going to purposefully take a pay cut just to give people a digital copy of the work.
Consider another point of view, from author Eric Flint, who is the "First Librarian" of the Baen Free Library. The whole essay I linked to is interesting, but here's the conclusion:
Flint hit it right on the head, IMO. There is no reason that authors should be guaranteed their current level of income. But neither is there any reason for authors to get worried that their profession will go away. Freely redistributable digital media will change the model, and there will be some pain during the transition, but as long as people want to read, and as long as authors need to eat, there will be a way for people to get paid for writing.
You probably think I'm missing your point, which is that authors won't *choose* to take a pay cut just to provide us with digital media. I didn't miss it. But the fact is that there is demand for digital media, so some enterprising authors and publishers will begin to take advantage of it. Baen's Webscriptions model is a good example; it's both highly profitable and DRM-free. It won't work for every kind of creative work, and it may not work, as is, forever, but it's exactly the kind of creative thinking we need... people figuring out how to adapt to the new realities, rather than keep churning out the buggy whips.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
DRM may not exclude any particular piece of hardware implicitly, but because it does ultimately depend on security by obscurity, it does exclude an entirely open-soure stack. That might become possible with hardware support, but then you've just traded obfuscated software for obfuscated hardware.
Project Gutenberg has audio books for download in MP3 format. Currently only 31 are read by a human, but they do have over 350 that sound like they were read by a Speak & Spell.
--
Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
- First Sale - it's yours
- Freedom of Information - strongest in Finland / Sweden, weakest in UK/France
- Fair Use - the purpose of copyright is to promote science and the useful arts
- Common Carriage - if you carry goods or traffic, it has to be available to all
The latter is relevant, since computers are used for communication. That's not just VOIP, but also written communication.Digital Restrictions Management technologies threaten to remove all of those above, especially if people just sit back and let monopolies or cartels roll over the market.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.