Peter,
Actually, you're quoting an excerpt from Roy Blount Jr.s' op/ed piece in
yesterday's New York Times. As President, he speaks for the Authors Guild.
The Guild's position is much more nuanced. Here's what Blount goes on to say
in that column concerning the Kindle and our concerns as visually impaired
readers:
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.”
In fact, publishers, authors and American copyright laws have long provided
for free audio availability to the blind and the guild is all for
technologies that expand that availability. (The federation, though, points
out that blind readers can’t independently use the Kindle 2’s visual,
on-screen controls.) But that doesn’t mean Amazon should be able, without
copyright-holders’ participation, to pass that service on to everyone.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Alan Smith: psmit...@post.harvard.edu"
<psmith.harv...@gmail.com>
To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:38 AM
Subject: restricting audio rights to synthesized voices ...
Walt Mossberg of the WSJ today sang the praises of the new Amazon Kindle.
But he cited the warning that the Authors Guild has publicly released:
Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio
rights. True, you can already get software that will read aloud whatever is
on your computer. But Kindle 2 is being sold specifically as a new,
improved, multimedia version of books–every title is an e-book and an audio
book rolled into one. And whereas e-books have yet to win mainstream
enthusiasm, audio books are a billion-dollar market, and growing. Audio
rights are not generally packaged with e-book rights. They are more valuable
than e-book rights. Income from audio books helps not inconsiderably to keep
authors, and publishers, afloat….You may be thinking that no automated
read-aloud function can
compete with the dulcet resonance of Jim Dale reading ‘Harry Potter’
or of authors, ahem, reading themselves. But the voices of Kindle 2
are quite listenable….And that sort of technology is improving all the
time….no part of my voice is competing with my own audio books yet. But
people who want to keep on doing creative things for a living must be duly
vigilant about any new means of transmitting their work.
I wonder if we will have to go through the same legal disclaimers as we do
to get into Bookshare?
Peter
Jonathan Mosen List Founder
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