Disabling text-to-speech (TTS) triggers DMCA exemption: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO REMOVE DRM

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by scveteran

Because of the recent news that is on point with the thread. Actually it is so on point that I didn't even notice that the thread was a year old.

Yes, but now people have gone sideways into a whole other topic. Several of them did not bother to check the date.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Okay. I'd like to point out that someone dug up this thread from _last_year_. Why are you guys rehashing such a fossilized decision?

Nate, nate nate....silly, it's because most days this place would debate water being wet...hehehehe....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

Nate, nate nate....silly, it's because most days this place would debate water being wet...hehehehe....

Depends what temperature it's at. It's only in the very restricted temperature range of around 0-100C that water is "wet". Unless you actually specify what phase the water is in, it's dangerous to generalise.

[charleski]

Surely the most important point here is that, given it's now legal to remove ebook DRM for the purposes of enabling TTS or allowing the text to be read in a specialised manner, it's also legal to develop and distribute the tools needed to do this?

E.g. it would be legal to distribute a program that took an encrypted epub, decrypted it to a temporary directory and then read it aloud, since the standard epub readers don't offer a TTS function. No need to hide the code away in obscure pastebin codedumps.

[jruschme]

One thing I find interesting in this is the wording "all existing ebook editions of the work".

It seems to me, then, that if I publish an ebook at $5.99 but disable TTS, but also publish another edition at $20,000 which has TTS enabled, then it would still be a DMCA violation to remove the TTS block on the $5.99 edition. Correct?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by charleski

Surely the most important point here is that, given it's now legal to remove ebook DRM for the purposes of enabling TTS or allowing the text to be read in a specialised manner, it's also legal to develop and distribute the tools needed to do this?

Why do you believe that? There are precedents in law for actions that are legal to do yourself, but which are not legal for someone else to assist you to do.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jruschme

It seems to me, then, that if I publish an ebook at $5.99 but disable TTS, but also publish another edition at $20,000 which has TTS enabled, then it would still be a DMCA violation to remove the TTS block on the $5.99 edition. Correct?

I would certainly read it that way, yes.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Depends what temperature it's at. It's only in the very restricted temperature range of around 0-100C that water is "wet". Unless you actually specify what phase the water is in, it's dangerous to generalise.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! Thanks Harry!! I really was in need of a happy chuckle today....seriously....

EDIT: btw, that reminds me of a 1st semester o-chem experiment when we were synthesizing a sulpha drug and along the way you had to use anhydrous ice because there was a teeeeny issue of a side chain reaction creating tri-nitro-toluene if it came into contact with liquid water...still we all had fun over the hold anhydrous-ice idea to describe ice with no melted liquid component taken seconds before from the ice maker. We did have one guy blow himself up because he was unlucky/careless about it...never made such a mistake again through...still feel badly for him,, sorta cuz once we knew he was not dead it wa sorta funny...

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by jruschme

One thing I find interesting in this is the wording "all existing ebook editions of the work".

It seems to me, then, that if I publish an ebook at $5.99 but disable TTS, but also publish another edition at $20,000 which has TTS enabled, then it would still be a DMCA violation to remove the TTS block on the $5.99 edition. Correct?

I would say you are correct. Cost and format were not specified or excluded in their decision.

Basically, the LOC left it up to the legally visually impaired person to choose wisely which format and device to purchase and but left DRM removal as the last option. I'm guessing they would need assistance removing the DRM if they are blind.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Depends what temperature it's at. It's only in the very restricted temperature range of around 0-100C that water is "wet". Unless you actually specify what phase the water is in, it's dangerous to generalise.

Perhaps 100c at sea level but less at higher altitudes. For that matter only if it is "pure".

Water: H2O as a liquid
Ice: H2O as a solid
Steam: H2O as a gas

Water is wet because it is a liquid. Once water ceases to be a liquid (i.e. solid or gaseous) it is no longer wet.

Just random thoughts off the top of my head. I reserve the right to be mistaken, wrong, off-topic or otherwise blowing smoke.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I would say you are correct. Cost and format were not specified or excluded in their decision.

Basically, the LOC left it up to the legally visually impaired person to choose wisely which format and device to purchase and but left DRM removal as the last option. I'm guessing they would need assistance removing the DRM if they are blind.

And if a recording version is available such as CD's or Tape version then this would qualify as audio version being available and thus you could not remove DRM.

Dale

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by shall1028

Perhaps 100c at sea level but less at higher altitudes. For that matter only if it is "pure".

Water: H2O as a liquid
Ice: H2O as a solid
Steam: H2O as a gas

Water is wet because it is a liquid. Once water ceases to be a liquid (i.e. solid or gaseous) it is no longer wet.

Just random thoughts off the top of my head. I reserve the right to be mistaken, wrong, off-topic or otherwise blowing smoke.

hahahahaha....thanks for keeping the humor in it all!! We better stop though before we all get in "hot water"....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by shall1028

Water is wet because it is a liquid. Once water ceases to be a liquid (i.e. solid or gaseous) it is no longer wet.

Just random thoughts off the top of my head. I reserve the right to be mistaken, wrong, off-topic or otherwise blowing smoke.

It's truer to say that water is a liquid which is wet, rather than water is wet because it is a liquid. A "wet" liquid is one which "sticks" to things. Put something absorbent in water and it will soak it up, but not all liquids do this. Eg, mercury, although a room temperature liquid, is not wet. Pour mercury onto a piece of blotting paper and it will just roll right off again, with none being absorbed.

Water is wet because the water molecule easily forms what are called "hydrogen bonds", which make it "stick" to other things. It's this "stickiness" that makes it wet.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

And if a recording version is available such as CD's or Tape version then this would qualify as audio version being available and thus you could not remove DRM.

Dale

Exactly. Unfortunately audio versions tend to be quite expensive but still no provision for cost was included. I would guess CDs are more useful to the blind than a kindle.