Hi Ray, You're correct that the policy of blocking VoiceOver access to eBook content in the Kindle app arises from the Author's Guild suit, but the guild is mostly worried about readers who are not visually impaired making use of these text-to-speech capabilities to listen to ebooks instead of buying audiobooks. It's the very fact that Apple has been building in VoiceOver capabilities into every iOS device and computer that constitutes the danger, from their point of view. That's why a Kindle app for the PC, that can be used with screen readers like JAWS, has been released, but there is no similar application for the Mac. If the only way that you could access the Kindle ebook content on your computer was by investing in blindness-specific software that equals or exceeds the cost of your computer, it's pretty hard to argue that you configured your machine this way just to avoid buying the audiobook versions. But the fact that every iPhone, iPod Touch, an iPad now support VoiceOver, and that the same is true for every Mac, means that any user of an iPhone, Mac, etc. could enable VoiceOver functionality in reading Kindle ebooks, if this capability were not explicitly blocked.
And so, if you carry the argument of the Author's Guild to its natural conclusion, non-visually impaired Kindle customers who find VoiceOver's reading "good enough" to listen to, will turn on this feature instead of buying audiobook versions that they would otherwise purchase. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 22, 2012, at 4:03 PM, Ray Foret Jr wrote: > That's not quite true. It's not because of copy right. The truth is this. > It's because of the Author's guild. They don't want the blind to be able to > read their books without extra costs. Their twisted reasoning is that the > text to speech tecnhology will rob them of sales. Every single organization > of the blind is fighting this stipid infantile logic. > > > Sincerely, > The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!! > > Now a very proud and happy Mac user!!! > > Skype name: > barefootedray > > Facebook: > facebook.com/ray.foretjr.1 > > > > On Mar 22, 2012, at 8:39 PM, Hank Smith wrote: > >> so because of stupid drm copy write crap the blind can't read the ebooks? >> On 3/22/2012 6:30 PM, Esther wrote: >>> >>> Hi Jeff, >>> >>> There are a number of ebook apps that specifically disable VoiceOver's >>> ability to access the content in order to preserve digital rights >>> management. This is also true if you try to use the Barnes & Noble Nook >>> app, for example. You'll notice that usually you can access everything >>> except for the actual content of the text. That's being blocked. You can >>> verify this by taking a screen capture, and sending the results to an OCR >>> app like Prizmo or TextGrabber. The OCR app will tell you what the >>> contents are, but obviously you're not going to read the book by screen >>> capturing every page and sending it to an OCR app. >>> >>> If you want to read another example of this viewpoint, that the ability of >>> screen readers to access text would promote copyright violation, take a >>> look at Greg Kearney's posted response from Fictionwise in the archives, >>> sent in reply to his inquiry about ebook accessibility for their ebook >>> reading app just a few months after the iPhone 3GS was released with >>> VoiceOver support: >>> • Fwd: Response for Support Ticket #102495 >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg06200.html >>> Since this is the Mail Archive post, if you're reading on your computer, >>> you can also use access key shortcuts of Control-N to read down the thread >>> for other reader comments. >>> >>> Best, >>> >>> Esther >>> >>> On Mar 22, 2012, at 2:59 PM, Ray Foret Jr wrote: >>> >>>> Forget it. It ain't gonna happen. >>>> >>>> It ain't accessible at all. >>>> >>>> >>>> Sincerely, >>>> The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!! >>>> >>>> Now a very proud and happy Mac user!!! >>>> >>>> Skype name: >>>> barefootedray >>>> >>>> Facebook: >>>> facebook.com/ray.foretjr.1 >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Mar 22, 2012, at 7:38 PM, Jeff Berwick wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi All, >>>>> >>>>> I downloaded the Kindle app so I can read some of the books that my wife >>>>> is reading. I can't, however, figure out how to get it to work. Has >>>>> anybody had success with the Kindle app? Is it accessible? Any tips? >>>>> >>>>> It looks like, to me, that it is displaying images instead of rendering >>>>> the text. >>>>> >>>>> Thx, >>>>> Jeff >>>>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
