Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, Cult of Mac
NYPL snubs iPod users
As c|net reported earlier, the New York Public Library has chosen to exclude iPod users from access to its new audio eBook collection. The NYPL has chosen to use Windows Media-based Media Console from OverDrive to handle the audio DRM. I have to say, this baffles me. It's not that the iPod is the only DAP in NYC, but it's the New York DAP. They're everywhere. People listen to them on the sidewalk, in the subway, in stores (which can be annoying if the person in front of you in line is really into a song), and anywhere else you can imagine. Hipsters love iPods, and New York has nothing if not throngs of Locking iPodders out of the public audio book circulation is
inexplicable. I understand some of the motivation, of course. The NYPL
has an existing relationship with OverDrive. Versions of Windows are
also the most widely used OSes, particularly on commodity computers, so
the eBooks will be available to many, many people who can't afford a
DAP at all, let alone an iPod. If I were running a public Library that
serves a largely impoverished population, I'd look long and hard at a
Windows-based solution, too, especially if my facilities tended to have
Windows machines installed as public workstations. But that's no reason
to leave the millions (at least it seems that way, tens of thousands is
probably more accurate) of New Yorkers with iPods out in the cold.
There ought to be a solution that makes everyone happy. Apple has long sold itself as the computer company for educators and academics. Surely there's some way for the NYPL to open its doors to the iPod.
There ought to be a solution that makes everyone happy. Apple has long sold itself as the computer company for educators and academics. Surely there's some way for the NYPL to open its doors to the iPod.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JD said 5:22PM on 12-07-2005
I have spent HOURS and HOURS looking for a “FREE” way to get streaming audio and Netlibrary books and files with Digital Rights Management onto my ipod. I never found anything worth using. Here is a link to a $49 product Replay Radio http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1796560-10291934 that does it all... It is like TiVo for ANY streaming media or digital audio you want to add to your ipod. This product won PC magazine’s editors choice for recording crystal clear audio from a PC.
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tj said 11:26AM on 6-16-2005
their stupid mistake.. they'll end up paying for it in the end too.
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Penginkun said 1:37PM on 6-16-2005
Crazy.
Oh well, I always prefer to check out actual CDs and roll my own in Apple Lossless for storage. Then I transcode to AAC for my iPod when I want to listen to something.
Any store which chooses to inflict DRM on its customers (in the case of the libraries, the people who PAID FOR THE CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY WITH THEIR TAX DOLLARS) won't find me in line for their products.
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Chris K said 2:06PM on 6-16-2005
Relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax.... just get your audio books in CD format and rip them yourself. A much better solution than being forced into a specific compression format, IMHO.
Besides, if the library had DRM'ed AAC files and unprotected CDs, which would you get?
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dalton said 3:44PM on 6-16-2005
You could do what I do, if they've got something you really want. Luckily, the Overdrive software allows you to burn to a CD, so just rip from that into MP3 or AAC, and you're all set.
I've actually got a virtual burner that I can then rip from, so I don't even have to waste the plastic. Just one or two extra steps to DRM freedom.
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tom said 9:25AM on 6-17-2005
Cleveland Public Library uses the same annoying system. Unfortunately audiobooks run 5-30 CDs sometimes, so an mp3 ebook solution seemed like a really easy bonus choice, until I saw the ridiculous Overdrive name associated with it.
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Kevin said 8:34PM on 6-17-2005
A large regional library here in Maine, the Portland Public Library, subscribes to a service provided by NetLibrary, which also uses non iPod friendly WMA DRM. Apparently they have had endless complaints about the service since it was instituted. As a librarian (not affiliated with that library) I find it to be a terrible misuse of public funds for a library to be spending money on services that, by many estimates, fewer than 10% of potential users can even use (and, you have to figure that the number of potential users of digital audio books is a miniscule portion of the library's overall user base to begin with).
If your local library subscribes to such a service, the best thing you can do is complain, but do so constructively! Particularly if it is a publicly funded library, get in touch with local government officials (who generally set library funding), get in touch with the library's board of directors and library management - let them know that, as a taxpayer, you are upset that the library is spending YOUR money (and we're talking quite a bit of money) on a service that flies in the face of traditionally held library philosophies - fair and equal access to all. With digital audio formats like this, they are serving a limited number of patrons OR expecting existing digital audio users to spend money for new equipment to use their service.
NetLibrary insists that the content providers require the DRM provided by WMA, but they all seem to forget, as mentioned above, that most libraries circulate far more actual CD based audiobooks that don't have any DRM...
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PM said 2:46PM on 6-19-2005
Unfortunately your're all blaming NYPL and Overdrive instead of putting the blame on where it belongs which is Apple. As much as I love the IPod, it is a prpprietary format which APPLE does not allow other players to access. These companies have approached Apple to try to make Ipods accessible but Apple has refused. They want to make their bucks at the the Itunes store and keep it all for themselves. By the way, The Eaudio from NYPL can be burned to a disc so once that is done you can probably figure it out from there.
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oggbaby said 4:50PM on 6-20-2005
Screw microsoft and apple. The library should be putting out the books in royalty-free, license-free ogg vorbis format. It's free, it's open, and it just plain sounds better than either of these two crippled formats.
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