Amazon Concedes on Kindle Text-to-Speech
Amazon Concedes on Kindle Text-to-Speech
Posted 03/02/2009 at 11:24am
| by Paul Lilly
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Does the newly released Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature violate copyright law? That's a question Amazon would rather avoid asking, and so on Friday the e-tailer announced it would be modifying its eBook reader to give authors and publishers the final say on whether or not to enable text-to-speech.
Even though Amazon has decided to pass the buck on possible legal ramifications of using text-to-speech, the company maintains that it doesn't infringe upon copyrights. In a statement released Friday, Amazon said "Kindle 2's experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given."
Amazon says it pulled the 180 because it believes "many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat." Or, as CNet interprets it, "Amazon caved." Amazon had been receiving criticism from the Authors Guild, who said it wouldn't rule out the possibility of suing Amazon. By making the text-to-speech function optional, Amazon has left authors and publishers to fend for themselves if they decide to enable the feature, which most of them probably won't.
Did Amazon make the right decision? Hit the jump and tell us what you think.
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michaelnomad
March 02, 2009 at 6:18pm
You know, since it was advertized have the text to speech feature, and people bought it. Maybe they could all get a partial refund. I wonder what would happen then?
whitneymr
March 02, 2009 at 4:20pm
Right now it's ADA (Americans with disabilities act) compliant. Removing it could be seen as violating ADA. Sounds like a class action lawsuit to me.
Vegan
March 02, 2009 at 5:02pm
The fact that, in this country, you can sue someone for making a product that doesn't fit your needs is ridiculous. So sorry that it's not for you.
Keith E. Whisman
March 02, 2009 at 2:29pm
Audio books have nothing at all to worry about. Usually audio books are read by the author or someone of notoriety and the kindle text to speech is just that with none of the theatrics of a human reader. Not all books have an audio book to accompany it. Show me Dos 6.22 for dummies or better yet Linux in a nutshell in audiobook form.
VoodooChicken
March 02, 2009 at 12:53pm
It does pose a great threat to audiobooks. I have never seen a Kindle, but I'm curious as to how it would pronounce gibberish words like bat'leth, pikachu, or ewok. How does it know the difference between read and read?
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Look behind you! A THREE-headed monkey!!!!!!!!
Trooper_One
March 02, 2009 at 12:20pm
What you're blind or have sight problems?
I think the IP owners are a little too protective and too accusatory and inadvertantly discriminated against a particular group.
bear
March 02, 2009 at 12:32pm
Of course, the argument against that is that there are books published in Braille, or perhaps the Kindle has a zoom feature. However, the Braille solution is incredibly expensive for an individual, and requires the training to read.
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then (adverb) \'then\: denotes time
than (conjuction) \'than\: denotes comparison
ex., 1 THEN 2, but 2 is more THAN 1.
bear
March 02, 2009 at 11:34am
The text-to-speech debacle is an interesting one. Historically, performances, not the content, of recordings is what is copyrighted. Thus, anyone can read Shakespeare's plays aloud; however, exhibit of, say, the performance given by London Community Players is copyrighted. It is interesting that the Authors Guild feels that the text-to-speech feature is a performance and thus subject to royalties. Though, it may just be better to publish or not publish books on kindle with the text-to-speech feature taken into account.
================================
then (adverb) \'then\: denotes time
than (conjuction) \'than\: denotes comparison
ex., 1 THEN 2, but 2 is more THAN 1.
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