Netlibrary audiobooks (was RE: Overdrive)

I've spoken with people at both Apple, Overdrive, and
NetLibrary about
this issue.  I can confirm that both vendors report
attempting many
times to work with Apple to produce something that will work
on their
computers and devices, but as Karen said--Apple's Digital
Rights
Management doesn't play nicely with the others.  

Who knows whether Apple's reasons for this lie in greed
(trying to get
their consumers to buy audio books only through iTunes) or
in corporate
integrity (why can't everyone else change to fit Apple). 
The bottom
line is that Apple's inflexibility is causing an access
crisis in
libraries for our digital content.  And until the kids learn
to play
well together, that won't change.

Sarah Houghton, Information & Web Services Manager
San Mateo County Library: http://smcl.org 
Librarian in Black: http://www.librariani
nblack.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Edelblute [mailto:TEdelbluteanaheim.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 2:59 PM
To: Reynolds, Bess; Carol Bean; web4libwebjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Netlibrary audiobooks (was RE:
Overdrive)

When I talked with the Overdrive people about this, they put
the blame
squarely on Apples refusal to allow Overdrive to market
something that
was compatible with iPOD.  They told me that since they want
to sell
everything through iTunes, they would not cooperate with
Overdrive.

Thomas Edelblute
Anaheim Public Library

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org] On Behalf Of Reynolds,
Bess
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 1:37 PM
To: Carol Bean; web4libwebjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Netlibrary audiobooks (was RE:
Overdrive)

As a library patron, I have to jump in because I use only
Macs at home.
When the New York Public Library announced the availability
of audio
downloads I was thrilled. The reality set in when I saw that
they were
using software that is only available for Windoze, not to
mention
Internet Explorer being the browser of their choice.

What happened to developing for cross platform use? It is
discriminatory.
(This is not a professional issue in my corporate type
environment)

Bess
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On Tue, 23 May 2006, Houghton, Sarah wrote:
> [...]  The bottom
> line is that Apple's inflexibility is causing an
access crisis in
> libraries for our digital content.  And until the kids
learn to play
> well together, that won't change.

Of course what its actually causing is an additional reason
why some folk 
rip off the DRM, reencode the audio and then put it on what
ever player 
they like.  Not legal but until audio cross connect cables,
sound cards 
and audio capture and encoding devices are made illegal and
the RIAA/MPAA 
police pop round to conviscate them all then there's not
much than any DRM 
system can do about it (at least for personal use).  Its
ironic that DRM 
is actually causing promotion of "piracy" like
this.

Jim'll
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