Amazon Caves on Kindle

Without a shot being fired, other than some over the bow over the top op-ed rhetoric by the Authors Guild possibly based upon a fanciful and far-fetched "derivative works" theory, Amazon has caved in to the Guild on its useful new Kindle technology to "read aloud" an electronic version of a book using computer synthesized speech.

Larry Lessig is scathing and makes a comparison to the Google books settlement. One of the problems with that that comparison is that that Amazon has settled here without even seeing a claim filed.

Perhaps the reason can be found in the AP story thhat notes that Amazon admits that it, too, has an interest in audio books:

Amazon said in a statement that it, too, has a stake in the success of the audiobook market, and pointed to its Brilliance Audio and Audible subsidiaries, which publish and sell professionally recorded readings.

"Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat," the company said.

Once again, questions of cross ownership, vertical integration, voluntary stifling of innovation and almost forgotten anti-trust basic principles and near comatose antitrust enforcement come to mind.

This is tough luck for the blind, for all consumers and for innovative technology. Amazon owes a better explanation.

If there indeed is a "Kindle Swindle" underway here, it's the public interest that appears to be the most obvious victim at this point.

HK

Authors Guild Views on "Kindle Swindle"

Roy Blount, the President of the Authors Guild, has an op-ed in today's NY Times enticingly entitled "The Kindle Swindle?" It concerns the latest version of Amazon's portable book reading device that can read aloud using a computer synthesized voice (choice of male or female), in contrast to a classic "audio book" that will be read by one or more professional actors or the author. Previous Kindles were designed primarily for reading from the screen.

The new Amazon Kindle can "read" the book using speech synthesis technology, which is hardly a new development as such. However, the Authors Guild is concerned about its deployment in the very user friendly (except to blind people) Kindle format:

Blount says:

What the guild is asserting is that authors have a right to a fair share of the value that audio adds to Kindle 2’s version of books. For this, the guild is being assailed. On the National Federation of the Blind’s Web site, the guild is accused of arguing that it is illegal for blind people to use “readers, either human or machine, to access books that are not available in alternative formats like Braille or audio.”
...

The guild is also accused of wanting to profiteer off family bedtime rituals. A lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation sarcastically warned that “parents everywhere should be on the lookout for legal papers haling them into court for reading to their kids.”

For the record: no, the Authors Guild does not expect royalties from anybody doing non-commercial performances of “Goodnight Moon.” If parents want to send their children off to bed with the voice of Kindle 2, however, it’s another matter.

HK