Re: Wait, Wait... The Kindle Swindle?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Glenn S. Tenney" <tenney () think org>
Date: February 28, 2009 2:40:37 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: Wait, Wait... The Kindle Swindle?

An update for the IP if you wish...

This doesn't bode well for anyone who has vision problems but is  
otherwise able to use a Kindle.

--
Glenn Tenney CISSP CISM



Amazon retreats on Kindle's text-to-speech issue
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10184406-93.html

Apparently, Amazon won't fight the publishing industry on the issue of  
whether the Kindle 2's text-to-speech function violates copyright.

The retailer, which makes the popular Kindle electronic-book reader,  
announced late Friday that the company is modifying systems to allow  
authors and publishers to decide whether to enable Kindle's text-to- 
speech function on a per-title basis.

Amazon starts its press release with tough talk. "Kindle 2's  
experimental text-to-speech feature is legal," Amazon wrote. "No copy  
is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being  
given."

But then the company says: "We strongly believe many rights holders  
will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are  
in the driver's seat," Amazon said.

There is no mistaking what happened here: Amazon caved. For Kindle  
owners interested in the text-to-speech feature, the reader just lost  
value.

The Authors Guild, a trade group representing 9,000 book authors had  
criticized Amazon since the Kindle 2 debuted earlier this month. The  
guild's president told CNET this week that Amazon was taking a hard- 
line position in discussions between the guild and the company. He  
also said there was a possibility that the guild could sue over the  
issue.

"Anytime you have a new means of accessing content," said Paul Aiken,  
"there's always some sort of aggregator that wants to control it and  
keep the value for themselves."

Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier  
Foundation, an advocate group for the rights of Web users and  
technology companies, said he was grateful that Amazon went out of its  
way to make the point that the company didn't believe text-to-speech  
technology violated copyright.

"Nevertheless, Amazon decided to allow copyright owners to make the  
decisions themselves whether to use the feature," von Lohmann said.  
"They are entitled to do that. The issue of text-to-speech will have  
to wait for another innovator."

One point that von Lohmann noted was that there are plenty of PCs that  
offer text-to-speech and the Authors Guild hasn't made any objections  
to those. "Maybe Apple should be looking over their shoulder," he said.

It's easy to understand why Amazon may have back-pedaled. Even the  
staunchest supporters of text-to-speech say that it won't replace  
audio books any time soon. Computers can sound like humans but they  
can't insert emphasis or offer much of a dramatic rendering because  
they don't yet understand what they're reading--and likely won't for a  
very long time, say the experts.






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