Access To Materials
Since DAISY is often used by people with disabilities, many of the existing organizations which produce accessible versions of copyrighted content are moving to the DAISY standard, and slowly moving away from more traditional methods of distribution such as cassette tape.
In the United States, Learning Ally (Formally "Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic" or RFB&D) Bookshare and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), among others, offer content to blind and visually impaired individuals. Learning Ally also allows access by those with dyslexia or other disabilities which impair the person's ability to read print. The NLS uses a library methodology, on the basis that the books are loaned (as they traditionally have been, on physical cassette), hence they are able to offer content free of charge, just as any public library can. Learning Ally and Bookshare both are subscription-based services.
Content from both the NLS and the Learning Ally organizations utilizes the DAISY Protected Digital Book (PDTB) encryption standard. The basic structure of the DAISY definition files remains the same, however, the audio itself, and in some cases certain information tags in the DAISY SMIL files, are encrypted and must be decrypted in order to be read/played back. This is done to comply with law 17 U.S.C. ยง 121 requiring copyrighted material to be distributed in a specialized format to prevent unauthorized individuals, such as those who do not have a qualifying disability, from accessing the materials. The organization which offers the content provides a decryption key to the user, which can be installed into a DAISY player to allow decryption. As the encryption schemes are not part of the core DAISY standard, only players which specifically implement the necessary algorithms and key management will be able to access these titles.
Read more about this topic: DAISY Digital Talking Book
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