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terrikoI got an audiobook to play on my MP3 player today, and it was a chore and a half with around 5 hours worth of upgrades. I could write a post about the procedure, but that's been done.
Brad Colbow's comic pretty much sums up the DRM problem best, I think. Getting DRM-protected content sucks, but libraries often have such systems in place to allow lending. I hate DRM, but I like my library, and I really like the idea of libraries being able to lend electronic content in a way that makes sense.
What I want to know is "what we are doing about it?" I know plenty of folk interested in open technology/culture... do any of you know of alternative software available to libraries? Resources they could use that would be more awesome and still enable lending?
(Related reading: Across the Digital Divide talks about why the whole "print is dead" thing leaves a lot of people in the dust. If you think about it in that context, making it easier to lend electronic resources in the future could be a bigger deal than you'd think.)
Usually I see people recommend you donate to the EFF or somesuch. And that's a good idea in general, but... I mean, I know I'd like to just have a world that was DRM-free. But apparently this is not a solution that works for my library, or more to the point it's not a solution that works for the places where my library obtains content. I want DRM to be dead, but I also would like to be able to borrow electronic resources a little sooner than never, thanks. Surely there are folk out there who are willing to sideline the ideology for now and just try to make something that's actually good?
So... what *are* we doing to make it easier for libraries to lend us electronic stuff?
Brad Colbow's comic pretty much sums up the DRM problem best, I think. Getting DRM-protected content sucks, but libraries often have such systems in place to allow lending. I hate DRM, but I like my library, and I really like the idea of libraries being able to lend electronic content in a way that makes sense.
What I want to know is "what we are doing about it?" I know plenty of folk interested in open technology/culture... do any of you know of alternative software available to libraries? Resources they could use that would be more awesome and still enable lending?
(Related reading: Across the Digital Divide talks about why the whole "print is dead" thing leaves a lot of people in the dust. If you think about it in that context, making it easier to lend electronic resources in the future could be a bigger deal than you'd think.)
Usually I see people recommend you donate to the EFF or somesuch. And that's a good idea in general, but... I mean, I know I'd like to just have a world that was DRM-free. But apparently this is not a solution that works for my library, or more to the point it's not a solution that works for the places where my library obtains content. I want DRM to be dead, but I also would like to be able to borrow electronic resources a little sooner than never, thanks. Surely there are folk out there who are willing to sideline the ideology for now and just try to make something that's actually good?
So... what *are* we doing to make it easier for libraries to lend us electronic stuff?
Re: what is left?
Date: October 4th, 2011 04:26 pm (UTC)I have three digital devices that could, in theory play the audiobook:
1. My mac laptop
2. My android phone
3. My creative mp3 player
The audiobook is in WMA format. So while I can install the overdrive software on #1 and 2, it absolutely refused to download the book on the assertion that I could not play the files.
That... pretty much would have meant that a binary blob for linux wouldn't have solved my particular usability issue at all. And it's the outright usability problem (as described in the comic) that I'm most interested in solving.
It's most definitely going to "need" a binary blob to deal with the DRM, but it should not "need" me to upgrade to ie8 because some activex control I need to download an updated certificate because their bloody process forced me to upgrade media player after I'd tried to view the content in it... Why isn't all the DRM in the blob? Why are audiobooks even in WMA format, which has got to be one of the most useless things?
Re: what is left?
Date: October 4th, 2011 04:29 pm (UTC)