Fwd: [elug] Linux and the Public Library

[Brent]

I don't know if this is a DRM issue as Overdrive simply allows the 
download of an MP3 which then can be copied or transferred from device 
to device without any copy protection getting tin the way. Overdive 
manages the content in terms of renewal and expiration of the borrowed 
materials.

Audio books, of which I use many as I am blind, are not copy protected 
in my experience. You can freely move an audio book to your hard drive 
from CD and listen when ever you want. I've put audio books onto mp3 
players, my ereader and onto flash drives so that when I travel I can 
take many books with me.

What about Android? Is this not open source too? Overdrive supports 
Android.

To me this was a short sighted business decision, targeting what 
Overdrive believes to be the most popular OS platforms and nothing else, 
mistakenly believing they have covered the market. Most stats show that 
Linux OS adoption rates are at five per cent with the Mac OS at six to 
seven per cent.

To me the question is.......

If you use Linux, are you happy that you cannot use parts of a public 
service like the library's delivery of audio books on line? I am not 
happy with that situation as it denies me access to a publicly funded 
service that I pay for with my property taxes.

If this were a DRM issue then why would Overdrive advise me to use 
Windows to gt the files and then just copy them? Sounds kind self 
defeating from a DRM perspective....heck might even be a violation of 
the DCMA if we lived south of the 49th or had the Tories passed Bills 
C60, 61 or 32.

Brent

  11-03-29 11:41 AM, Russell McOrmond wrote:
> 2011/3/29 James<james2432 at gmail.com>:
>> Usually when people say they are going to work on it they don't (see
>> ventrilo client) and then people work on a free version (see Mangler) a lot
>> of reverse engineering and work goes into the linux community because big
>> corporations don't want to support an O/S with 1-2% market share :(
>    This is part of a DRM system, with the intention being that content
> is only able to be unlocked with keys embedded in the software -- and
> that the content is unavailable otherwise.   The more open the
> computing platform, the less likely a DRM vendor is to support it.
> Folks running Linux tend to be more free/libre (markets, speech, etc)
> minded than DRM vendors are really compatible with.
>
>    Even if Linux commanded 30% of the market share, they would still be
> reluctant to "offer" support.
>

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